The Brothers and the Blades
by nani'anela
Summary: When the three brothers are finally reunited, things are far from perfect. There is only one way to save Adam, but it turns out to be much more dangerous than any of them thought. Follow along as the three brothers hunt Slenderman, liberate Selkies, and try to stop the Leviathans from collecting all 4 blades and ruling everything with hell (ruby's knife), heaven, earth & purgatory.
1. The Brothers Winchester

It was the shattering of glass that woke him up. He was grateful, because he was just having one of the most awful dreams. It was probably just his mom coming to wake him up, and being a little clumsy she broke something. He couldn't wait to just open his eyes, forgot that horrible dream, and get ready for school. Adam's blue eyes fluttered open, and he felt dizzy as he stared up at a spinning iron fan high up above, which had chains in the form of a star. The smell of sea salt and cool iron crept into his nose. Everything sounded like it was underwater, but he strained to hear what was happening.

"Dammit Cas," He heard a very familiar voice say to his right.

"I'm sorry, you know I've been losing power lately. I suppose my traveling has become a bit clumsy," he heard an unfamiliar, formal and gruff voice say in return. He closed his eyes again when he felt sick from the bright light from above and the spinning of the fan blades.

"Hey, Hey!" He heard the voice to his right pipe up. His head felt like a great fog surrounded it, as he tried to place the familiarity of the voice. Everything in his memory seemed so far away...

Before he could think, he felt two strong hands grab the front of his jacket and shake his somewhat roughly. Adam struggled to open his eyes again. He weakly put up his hands to defend himself. Seeing the light once more sent a painful headache splitting his skull, and he moved his hand to cover his eyes.

Adam looked up with hopeful blue eyes into a happily familiar face, his green eyes overflowing with concern, eyebrows raised in curiosity.

"SAMMAY," His eldest brother turned his head and hollered out of the door. Adam's face screwed up at the loud noise, which caused his head to throb. He let his eyes fall closed again, and he was met with a singular, a bit less rough, shake from the coat sides of his jacket. He groaned and opened his eyes again, this time to see his other brother peering down at him with an extremely concerned expression, brown eyebrows knit together. Sam turned his head to look behind him, and Adam was grateful that he spoke in a lower tone this time.

"Is he going to be alright?" He asked the man from before, Cas, Adam presumed, as he came up to look at him as well. His deep blue eyes were narrowed, and his head was cocked slightly to the side, and he stared at Adam with intense concentration.

"I have reason to believe he'll be fine, yes," He answered in a low, gruff voice. Adam was too tired to feel uncomfortable at all the stares directed at him.

"What...happened?" He asked, surprised at how absolutely shitty he felt. He just wanted to close his eyes and sleep for a week. His two older brothers looked at each other, and then at him.

"What do you remember, Adam?" Sam asked him in a low voice, empathy pouring from his eyes. He felt a memory at the tip of his tongue; it felt like he was searching for a word that he just almost knew.

"Why don't you start with the very last thing you remember," Dean added, looking at him with concern.

"We were, um..." He suddenly looked up at Sam with big, marble-blue eyes. "My mom's dead, isn't she? And there was something about saying yes..." he screwed his face up in concentration.

Dean looked frustrated and, running his hand through his short dirty-blond hair, stood up from the bedside chair and turned around to walk away, and was quickly followed by the dark-haired Cas.

"Jesus Christ, Cas. I can't go through all this again with another brother, I just can't." Cas followed him, saying something to him in a low voice, which Adam couldn't quite catch.

"Hey, bud. Look at me. What about after that?" Sam caught his attention again, putting his hand on his shoulder, looking at him with a puppy eyed expression.

"I..." Adam strained to remember, and it all came crashing back. Adam's eyes sprung shut, and his whole body tensed up as he seemed to go into some sort of fit. He felt out a few frightened noises as he began to jerk around in his bed.

"Adam! Hey, hey!" Sam cried out, trying to gently shake his baby brother's shoulders. The fit didn't stop for a few more seconds, then his body relaxed completely and he seemed to fall into an even deeper sleep. Sam didn't realize that he had been holding his breath until afterwards, when he let out a deep sigh.

"Is that what happened to me?" He turned to ask Dean in a low, scared voice. Dean nodded solemnly, and seemed distant as he narrowed his green eyes.

"He's remembering. It's pretty damn scary, isn't it?" Sam nodded and turned his attention back to his little brother, his eyebrows knit tightly together with concern, his lips pressed slightly together in worry.

"I just wonder if we're doing the right thing." He sighed, and Dean knew he meant killing him so he could go to heaven. Dean shook his head.

"He's our brother, Sam. It's our fault he was sent to the Cage, and so it's up to us to fix the damage before he's sent to his final rest. The kid's just seventeen, for Christ's sake," Sam nodded, but didn't want to take his eyes off his little brother. He felt an enormous, consuming amount of guilt. The only objective was just to lock the devil away. However, he'd dragged his little brother, whom he should have protected just like Dean had his whole life, into that horrible place with him. He peered at Adam, thinking deeply.

"I wonder what he's remembering right now, Dean. He just looks so... peaceful."

Cas stepped in to the conversation. "Since we've caught it close enough, I should be able to stop the damage. But there's still no telling what could happen to him with the particular _help _we're giving him," he explained, actually looking concerned himself.

"We'll just have to see then, huh?" Sam replied, staring into Adam's face.

"I'm going out and picking up some dinner. Ya comin?" Dean asked Sam, tapping him lightly on the shoulder as he got up and headed for the heavy steel door.

"Oh, no. I'm fine, just pick something up for me, alright?" He said with a dismissing wave of his hand.

"Okie dokie," Dean called back with a slight smile, looking behind him as he stepped outside the safe room.

Sam heard the light flapping of feathers and realized that Cas had left as well.

He let out a deep sigh, not intending to leave his brother's side until he woke up again. The guilt weighed down in him with more intensity than he'd ever felt.

* * *

The memories came back to Adam in bits and pieces, and he wasn't sure of the order of things. It was hard to tell time in the cage, but there were a few things that acted as place markers for the passing of time. One indication that it was an early time in the cage was if Sam was still with him. It was later on if the only thing there was Sam's soul. It had to be even later still if Sam was gone completely.

He remembered snippets of the horrible torture, and was grateful that those sped by quickly. Finally, he got to the memory of how he ended up in the cage.

He could remember it as if it was just a second ago. He felt a sick drop in his stomach as he was free-falling, face first, into a dark and seemingly bottomless pit, having just had an impossibly rough pull into it from his brother. He felt his possession Michael tear away from him very unpleasantly, leaving him with an empty feeling with uncomfortable residue, it was almost a gooey, cobwebby feeling that was gradually torn away from his body.

He felt the flap of a wing as they brushed against his body, but that was it. He felt like he was blind. He hit the ground, hard. It felt like concrete. He rolled to his side and curled up into the fetal position, clutching at his chest. When the angel had left him, it left him feeling sick with a gaping hole in his chest that he instinctively tried to clutch at.

"Sam," he called out hoarsely. He could remember quite a bit of being possessed, actually. He heard a grunt from not too far away.

"Is that Adam?" He heard his older brother call from the dark. Adam groped around trying to find him. "Sam, please, tell me what happened…" Suddenly he could see as a bright light sprang up from nowhere, and he felt a jolt of fear in his body as he saw a great beast grab ahold of Sam by the neck and lift him off the floor.

"_You locked me in here,_" The creature bellowed, his six pairs of stacked obsidian wings puffing up and flapping with sheer anger. Sam was being choked, lifted high up the ground as he kicked and tried to get free the monster brought his closer to his great wide, sharp-toothed mouth.

"Sam!" Adam thought, and without thinking tried to grab his kicking legs and bring him back down.

"Stupid human-" Out of nowhere came the other celestial being, glowing a bright white-golden light, knocking the dark monster away as he dropped Sam.

Sam had a large cut on the side of his face already, and he looked shocked and terrified.

"Come on, we have to get out of here." Adam called, trying to support his older brother, although he was much shorter and smaller than him.

"Where are we?" Adam asked in desperation, as they had been running for a long while and hadn't seemed to get any closer to the pitch-black wall they were trying to get to. Sam was panting from his newly sustained injuries.

"We're in a cage, a cage in the deepest pit of hell." Sam panted, and Adam got a look of pure shock on his face.

"But-" He didn't have a chance to finish when he felt the stab of hundreds of sharp claws puncture through his back, and he looked down to see them exiting though the front of his chest, shiny, sharp and daggers and deep black. He felt an overwhelming amount of fear, and with a painful tear he was thrown and slammed with a great force onto the deep black wall, which also felt like concrete. He knew that if he were in the real world, he would be dead by now. His chest and head were screaming in pain, so much that he could barely cope. He could still feel the blood as it ran down his chest.

"Aren't you just the most precious little vessel, Plan B," The dark-winged creature growled at him as Adam felt the acrid hot breath rustle his hair. He felt a trickle of blood from his skull. He squeezed his eyes shut so he didn't have to see the rows and rows of white, glimmering teeth.

Again he was catapulted into another memory. After a while he and Sam navigated around enough to find a few dark corners that were somewhat out of sight from the two vicious archangels, and when they clashed the two brothers would crawl into them and squish together. Adam remembered breaking down and crying as Sam tried to comfort his tiny brother by wrapping him up in his arms. Adam didn't have to say anything for him to understand what he was feeling. Sam smoothed his brother's hair as he sobbed into his shoulder.

"Dean won't leave us, Adam. I promise. We won't be here forever," Sam tried to soothe him, smoothing his hair rhythmically as they tried to hide away from the horrible nightmare they were in together. Blood oozed out of wounds that seemed to reach soul-deep that never healed, and the two didn't move even though they both endured horrible pain in these tight, black places.

"How do you know that he will bring us back, Sam? What if there isn't a way?" Adam asked in between sobs.

"He will find a way," Sam reassured him in his best big-brother tone. Suddenly, there was a blast of fiery heat as the membrane of the cage was ripped apart from above. The two brothers looked up with hopeful looks. The black membrane instantly healed itself up, and there was a familiar well-dressed demon.

"Crowley?" Sam asked, sounding hopeful. At least he was seeing a new face for once, and he actually felt relieved to see the demon.

"Come here, Sam." Crowley said, walking toward Sam. Sam stood up, and he and Adam crawled out of the tiny black dimple in the cage's wall. Sam stood tall and put his arm around his little brother's shoulder.

"If this is a deal from Dean, I want to know what he's done before I accept," Sam said bravely, but it was clear in his eyes that he didn't want to stay another second in this place.

"Oh, no deal." Crowley said in his thick English accent. "But there is a condition." Faster than Adam could react, Crowley had seized Sam and had thrown him onto the ground, his fist swallowed up in Sam's torso.

"Sam!" Adam called, rushing up to aid his brother. Crowley simply put an arm out and Adam was flung violently away.

Suddenly there was a brilliant white light as Crowley ripped something out of Sam's torso, which he threw at Adam quickly. With an unpleasant rip, the black membrane was torn again and the black-suited demon had left without a trace with Sam's body. Adam looked down at the whitish-blue orb that he was holding that was emitting such a bright glow that he could see the walls of the cage, which weren't really a solid black, but where rather colored by the millions upon millions of swirling demon souls that were surrounding and pressing against the cage walls.

The light instantly caught the attention of the two angels, who immediately charged at Adam and the Soul. Adam cried out, and despite all his wounds, sprinted to the black corners of the cage, which he barely was able to mush the little white soul inside. A split second later he was being tackled, skinned alive and tortured by the two powerful beings.

By the time Adam had crawled back, wishing he could just die,the Soul had put out small white tendrils and expanded until it took on a blurry, wispy shape, which was almost a ghost of a little boy, no more than seven years old.

"Sam?" Adam asked, his whole body screaming from pain when he crawled back into their tiny corner, dripping blood.

The little blurry child emoted a dim white-blue light, and looked up to Adam with big baby eyes. Adam crawled in and hugged the tiny Soul.

"They'll be back for both of us, Sam." He said, holding the child-like spectre. The Soul was a nice thing to have, he liked the light that it emitted, it made him feel better and somewhat stronger in this bleak situation, although it did nothing for his ever-present wounds.

However, when the angels found them, he couldn't always protect the mute soul, and it would be ripped from his arms and tortured and cut up just the same. The part that was ripped from Sam, his missing piece, grew dimmer each time until Adam was holding little more than a bit of condensed fog.

He remembered that grim day when the soul was ripped away from him from the last time, this time from Death.

"Sam, please!" Adam cried out desperately, tears streaming down his cheeks. He knew he wouldn't get a response, the Soul was unable to speak.

"Sir, please, take me too! Please!" Adam sobbed, trying to throw himself at the long-nosed, dark-eyed man who had appeared in the cage and snatched the soul away.

"There was a choice made, Adam." Death said absolutely indifferently, as he seemed to stuff something solid and white into the little blurry child in his arms. "And you were not part of it." He said coldly. And then, he too, was gone.

Adam tumbled through memories of torture and horror for a while, knowing that it was in the third time marker, as Sam was nowhere to be seen. Finally, he was able to remember some things before the Cage.

"You will say yes to me," said Michael, appearing to him as some middle-aged man with a head of fluffy brown hair and a dilapidating body. He'd just been pounding on the thin door that separated him from freedom and his family, as a white light surrounded him and tugged him away. Adam would never forgot that feeling of absolute abandonment and aloneness that gripped his chest that moment.

"No," Adam said firmly, and he coughed a little as more blood came from his lungs. He hated the metallic taste in his mouth. He couldn't say yes, Dean had avoided it, and Adam was determined he could too.

"I'll bring your mother back to life, Adam. How would you like that?" Adam felt a sharp tug on his chest. He _really _wished he could bring his mom back. He gulped and felt his eyes prick with tears, which he quickly blinked away.

"No," He said, a bit less firmly this time, and with sadness.

"Alright, I've given you the carrot, and you foolishly refused that, so now I'm giving you the stick." Adam felt his stomach drop as he felt genuinely afraid.

"If you don't say yes, how does stage three brain cancer sound for your sweet old grandmother?" The vicious angel asked in a painfully sweet tone. They were transported out of the lavishly decorated room and Adam saw his grandmother fall to the floor, coughing, her face going pale as a sheet…

"NO!" Adam shut his eyes away from the horrible sight and bellowed the answer. He couldn't hold back the tears now as one streaked down his face.

"You've just lost your last legal guardian on the will, son." The angel said with a tsk tsk and shake of his head.

"If you don't say yes, I'll kill your brother Dean, right now. We have no use for him anymore, since we have you, dear boy." They were transported to where the boys where, looking at them from the backseat of the Impala. Dean and Sam looked very shaken up about the loss of their little brother behind the door, especially Dean. He didn't look away from the road as his eyebrows were brought down in a frown.

"Sam," He said gruffly, angrily.

"We'll get him back, Dean. We can find a way," Sam tried to comfort his brother. Adam couldn't take it.

"He'll get a heart attack and probably crash this car, killing both of your brothers and wrecking the car. We'll just bring back Sam for Lucy, though. It is still a 'no'? Because I have a whole lot of other things on the list we can move onto…" The angel said with an air of boredom, which absolutely infuriated Adam.

"Okay, yes," Adam said finally, trying as hard as he could to hold back his tears as he wiped the blood off his mouth with his sleeve.

"What was that?" The red-faced, decomposing angel asked contemptuously.

"I said yes," Adam said, and the old angel smiled in a way that was most unangelic. Adam suddenly filled with pain as a bright light lit up every corner of the ornate room as the angel entered into his body.

Adam was barely conscious when he had been finally lifted out of the Cage after over one hundred and fifty years. He couldn't remember who did it, but he had been reduced to a diced up, barely human piece of a person who had completely given up on all rescue.

Adam shot up in bed with a gasp, and he felt a painful jerk on one of his arms. He looked curiously to see a needle taped into place, a bag of blood suspended above him with a tube of it flowing into his arm. He caught a sight of Sam, who was sitting and waiting patiently by his bedside, a tired expression on his face as his back arched and he rested his head on his hands. His face was so familiar, after they'd spent so much time running and hiding together in the cage, it brought out a huge bought of emotion.

"Sam," Adam choked, not minding the tiny pain as the IV ripped out of his arm as he lunged to hug his brother.

"Adam, you're okay." Sam said softly as Adam threw his arms around his brother. He started to sob and couldn't stop. He curled up into the familiar position from the Cage, as Sam reached up to smooth his youngest brother's hair in comfort, which made Adam sob even harder.

"I am so sorry Adam. I'm so, so, so sorry," Sam whispered to his baby brother, all the hurt pouring from his words. Dean walked in moments later, carrying take out bags.

"Hey Sammy, I brought take-out. The lady behind the counter was hot! Oh-" He said as he came into the room and stopped dead in his tracks. He saw that Adam was awake and in such a fragile state, and Sam gave him a look that showed all his raw guilt that he'd been bottling up.

"How long ago-" Dean started, grabbing the chair opposite of the bed and moving it to sit next to Sam.

"Just now," Sam said, still stroking his brother's sandy blonde hair slowly. Adam didn't look any older than when they had first met him, over two years ago. Bringing him back to life must have made their age gap even larger, Adam looking not a day over seventeen.

"We made it out, Adam." Sam told his little brother softly. Adam pulled away from the hug, his marble-blue eyes shining with sadness as tears clung to his eyelashes.

Adam sat up onto the edge of the bed wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.

"When your soul was left behind, I tried to protect it as best as I could…" He broke down and tears began to roll out of his eyes.

_Poor kid, _Dean thought to himself. He had been in hell for around thirty years, and he hadn't had to measure up to angry angels in an impossibly horrific cage. Adam had even outdated Sam in the whole ordeal.

Dean came closer to his little brother, who wrapped him up in embrace right away. Dean was not expecting it, and sat there a bit shocked, and he finally moved his hands to wrap around Adam.

"Thank you for saving me," He whispered to him, even though he still couldn't recall who had really done it. He knew that somehow it had been his oldest brother who had finally rescued him. He pulled away from the hug and looked into his eldest brother's eyes with deep gratitude.

"I would do anything for my family," Dean replied.

"We're the ones left for you now, Addie. Your mom is gone, our Dad is gone, that leaves us to take care of you." Dean was more than happy to accept that responsibility, seeing that Adam wasn't yet an adult and needed a legal guardian. However, having twice the workload as usual, and with his younger brother having some serious mental issues and the other in recovery, Dean was feeling spread thin as his big-brother drive kicked into overtime.

Adam pulled away, and clutched at his throbbing head.

"Can I get some medicine for my head?" He asked innocently. Sam nodded, smiling at him as he went to get up.

"Whoa, what happened?" Dean quickly leaned forward and caught the IV between two fingers, which had been hanging and dripping blood onto the ground.

"This is what will make you feel better, Adam." He said solemnly, coming to hook the needle back up into Adam's arm. Adam felt confused. His head hurt so badly that he felt like chopping it off. He innocently extended his arm and let it go limp in trust when Dean grabbed ahold of it. He slid the needle back in and wrapped the gauze around it.

"You'll be fine, Addie. Just let us know if you start hearing voices or something," He said with a hint of humor.

"_Dean_," Sam retorted, not finding it funny at all.

After dinner, the two brothers had to sit down and have a talk. Adam had fallen fast asleep again, and the two had left to talk upstairs.

"What are we supposed to do with him, Sam? He's got no family left, but he wasn't raised in the life and after all he's been through we can't just bring him into it…" Dean said in a hushed tone.

"What else are we supposed to do? We are_ not_ leaving him again." Sam said with determination.

Dean gave him a sidelong glance. "I know_ that, _Sammy_. _What happened down in the Cage, anyway?"

Sam covered his eyes with his hand, looking extremely worn down. "He looked out for me more than I helped him. When I got my soul back, it remembered everything he'd done for me. I could have been far worse off without his help. And then he had to see rescue come, _twice, _and it was never for him." Sam looked on the verge of tears. "It's my turn to be the big brother, and I've screwed it up so bad…"

He looked down at the floor. "He's coming with us, Dean. No matter what."

Dean's lips turned downward and he nodded his head in agreement. "We can-"

Before he could finish, there was a lot of noise and screaming coming from the safe room. The two looked at each other, understanding, and quickly rushed downstairs. Dean slid open the tiny viewing window and peeked in at his little brother. Adam had ripped the IV out of his arm, and with eyes shut tight, was screaming his absolute head off as he curled into a ball, shutting the world out as he only exposed his curled back.

Sam didn't wait and burst into the room. "Adam!" He called out, reaching out to touch his brother on one of the shoulder blades. The kid wouldn't stop screaming and only tensed up more. Sam looked frightened and desperate.

"Dean, what do we do?" He asked, running up to his brother. Suddenly, Castiel was there at Adam's beside.

"Sleep," He said in a monotone voice as he touched to fingers to the kid's forehead. Adam was instantly slack and fell asleep again.

"What was that all about, Cas?" Dean asked angrily. Castiel shifted his deep blue eyes away from Dean's glance. "He was in the cage for even longer than any of you can comprehend. He's just coping." He answered quickly.

"There's something you're not telling us," Dean said, stalking up to his friend angrily. "I think I can tell when you're hiding something by now, Cas."

The dark-haired angel avoided his friend's glance. "I…I think it may be the blood. It's causing him some physical pain," He finally said.

"And why would that be happening?" Dean asked, looking offended and hurt that he didn't tell him before.

"It's much more powerful than his body, and his body is just putting out a response to cope. He'll be fine in a few hours," He said, still avoiding their glances.

"You have no fucking idea what your doing, do you?" Dean accused angrily. Cas looked up, slightly angry as well.

"I am doing _everything_ I can. He's going to be okay because of me. Have you forgotten that _I _am the one bleeding for you once again?"

Sam was feeling his brother's forehead. "Cas, he's burning up. Please, is there anything else we can do for him?" He asked with concern.

"No," Cas answered in his low voice, looking angrily at Dean. "Take him off my blood for a couple days, and we'll see if he needs more later." With a flutter of wings, he was gone.

"I'm beginning to think something's up, Sam." Dean said wearily, coming to sit down on one of the wooden chairs next to the bedside. He sighed and rested his head on one of his hands.

"You head on up to bed, I'll watch him." He told Sam.

"Are you sure?" Sam asked, wringing his hands. He didn't want his baby brother to be alone anymore, when all these weird things were happening to him.

"Yeah, go." Dean said, rubbing his forehead as he looked to the ground. He was very tired but wanted to stay up to make sure Adam was alright tonight. Taking care of these _two _little brothers was exhausting, when he was used to giving one hundred percent to his one brother.

He got the laptop and began to do some research, and only left his brother's side for a few moments to get books to try and find out what was happening. He stayed awake in the dim light from a lamp, reading book after book but finding no luck. He didn't wanted to give up, but after hours of searching and finding absolutely nothing he felt too frustrated and put everything off to the side.

"Hang in there, Adam." He said, touching his tiny brother's shoulder. He wasn't very tall, and he was getting very skinny from being so ill. The clear, Caribbean-blue eyes fluttered open.

"Dean," Adam said, dry-mouthed and hoarse. Dean's green eyes flew open in surprise. "Are you okay?" He said instantly.

"I'm fine," He forced the words, screwing his face up. Dean almost smiled at how him and Sam where so similar in that way. But then his face fell again as he remembered the situation he was in.

"You're going to be okay. I promise," Dean said, hoping that it sounded convincing. He was afraid of the worst.

Adam looked reassured and shut his eyes again, his body shuddering. Dean nodded off to sleep, and a few hours later was violently awoken by a short scream. His brother was tossing and turning again, his eyes squeezed shut.

"Adam, Addie!" Dean called, jumping up and grabbing his brother's shoulder. His eyes flew open and he stopped flailing around, but his body was tensed up and pain twisted his face.

"Dean," His brother managed to say, and Dean's heart twisted in his chest. Sam had heard too, and the tall brother came lumbering down the stairs a few moments later.

"What is it? What's hurting?" He called out to Adam, rushing to him.

The teen couldn't seem to respond, but gritted his teeth and whimpered softly in pain.

"Dean, get Cas here _now,_" Sam looked angry as he went and pulled Adam into his chest and tried to restrain his struggling. There was a sound of wings and suddenly he was there.

"Do something!" Dean cried out right when he saw his friend's face. Castiel went up to the struggling kid and shoved Sam off, and he gripped the kid's face tightly on both sides of his head, looking determined. A bright white light started to form on the palms of his hands, and crept its way like vines onto the kid's face, and his expression fell from being twisted in pain to absolute calm. The kid passed out again on the bed.

"I've practically drained my powers for him, I hope you're satisfied," The angel said moodily. Dean noticed that the angel's hands were shaking.

"Thank you," Dean said, taking one of the trembling hands and pulling it into a handshake. The angel looked away. "We can't stay here much longer. They've found this house and can be here any minute. You know that,"

Sam sighed. "We were waiting for Adam to wake up, but I guess it's even worse now."

"Well, If it's time to run then let's hit the road. We'll just deal with the blows as they come, alright?" Dean said, looking absolutely exhausted. He was on constant big-brother mode for the past few days, and it was draining him.

They packed the car, making sure to bring along some painkillers for their brother. Dean started up the car and pulled up close to the house.

Sam came out, carrying Adam in a piggyback as his arm hung limply down over one of his shoulders and his head was resting on the other.

The car was streaking down the road quickly, and the environment was tense as the brothers didn't know how close these Leviathans were to finding them, and they had one very sick brother and one almost powerless angel in the backseat.

Castiel was wide-awake, staring straight ahead of him as the sleeping Adam next to him was beginning to stir.

"My head hurts," Adam groaned from the backseat, finally sitting up from his slumped over position. He rubbed his eyes and did a tiny stretch.

"You feeling alright?" Sam asked, turning back to look into the backseat. It felt so strange to have a full backseat.

"I'm okay," Adam tried to insist again, as he squinted his eyes and rubbed them again. "Where are we going?" he asked innocently.

"Away," Cas answered from beside him, looking straight ahead. "It's a good thing we left when we did. They were very close to finding us when I did my search," He said very gravely.

Adam looked confused. "What's going on?" he asked and he touched his head gingerly.

"Don't worry about it now, Addie. We're getting away, that's all you need to know." Dean said gruffly. Adam was too tired to feel insulted that they weren't telling him everything.

"We'll need to stay at the nearest motel soon, it's getting really late." Sam mentioned to his brother, eyeing the clock. It was almost one in the morning.

They pulled up to an old, broken down motel with a buzzing sign with a few letters out. "Well, I've had enough for one day." Dean said as he pushed the key in the lock and flopped onto one of the beds in exhaustion.

"Uh, Dean?" Sam inquired. Dean felt like just sleeping right there, stomach-down and in all his clothes. With his cheek pressed to the quilt, he muttered irritably "What?"

"We forgot to ask for more beds," He said, and Dean groaned. "I'm the oldest, and what I say goes, and I need a goddamn bed to myself." He said, irked, as he didn't get up from his splayed out position on the bed.

"The oldest?" Cas piped up. Dean snorted. "Oh, shut up. You don't even need to sleep."

There was a moment of silence. Dean finally got up and began taking off his shoes. "Having travelers is gonna take some getting used to," He laughed to himself.

Dean was absolutely exhausted as he fell into bed. Sam and Adam went together in the remaining one, and it definitely wasn't as awkward for them as it would have been if Adam had had to share with Dean, whom he had barely known.

The lights turned off, and the two brothers who had been trapped in the cage together could finally talk to one another.

"I went through this before you, Adam. And I want to know right away if you're not feeling fine. I tried to make life easier for my brother by lying, but in the end it made things worse. You promise?" Sam asked into the darkness.

"Okay," Adam piped up with a yawn. He took in a deep breath. "I don't think I've ever been so tired after sleeping for so long," He said in a low voice. He paused for a second, obviously wanting to say more. "Do you really think I'll be okay, Sam?" He asked, in a voice that was very scared.

"I trust Cas with my whole heart, and I know that he'll be able to help you. He did everything to help me. He might be a little rough around the edges, but I've never met a better guy," Sam answered. Adam smiled into the dark.

"Goodnight, Sam." He said and buried his face into the nearest pillow.

Adam woke up extremely uncomfortable as he was shoved into the very corner of the bed, shivering without any covers, as his gigantic brother was snoring away contentedly as he took up the whole bed and had twisted away most of the sheets. Adam groaned, and half-asleep, crawled into the bed next to him, where his eldest brother had barely moved since he'd hit the mattress.

He tried to keep asleep even when he started to feel the deep pain rise up in his body again. In trying to contain himself, he started shaking violently and he felt beads of sweat start to form on his forehead and roll down past his ears and onto his chin. His body seemed to have a mind of it's own as it quivered uncontrollably. The pain started to get even worse. It felt like poison pumping its way through his whole body, as he tried not to cry out.

"Adam?" He heard a low voice say as he felt someone grab his shoulder. His eyes flung open, and he expected to see the familiar narrow-eyed, dark-haired man, but all he could see were dark, gigantic, black wings. He couldn't help but let out a yelp as he noticed the wings, which he associated with terror and pain. He clapped his hand to his mouth, trying not to wake up his brothers, but it was too late.

Dean had instantly sprung up and he had his gun pointed at his friend, and he couldn't quite see in the dark.

"What the hell is going on?" He shouted, roughly grabbing Adam around the shoulders and shoving him behind him to protect him. Castiel somehow turned on the lightswitch and put his hands up as if to say 'don't look at me!'

"It's a misunderstanding," He said calmly. Dean turned to look at his shaken up brother.

"What's the matter? Why are you crying, Addie?" Adam hadn't even noticed, but he had kept his two hands tight over his mouth as tears had started to leak from his eyes. He removed his hands slowly, as they shook and stayed in a curled position.

"He…He has…" He couldn't bring himself to speak. He felt terrified, even though he knew the man before him was a friend who was saving him. The dark-haired man tilted his head and narrowed his blue eyes, but his deep raven-colored wings were the only things Adam could really notice about him now.

He suddenly felt something like a mental head but, and Adam's marble-blue eyes widened as he wasn't expecting it.

"Adam, you have to let me in," Cas said, looking extremely concentrated.

"What…what are you talking about?"

Suddenly, Adam saw a look of realization fall onto Castiel's face.

"It must be something like a side effect," He said. Dean looked extremely annoyed as he put his gun away under his pillow.

"Adam, wake up Sam right now. I want to know _exactly _what is going on, right now!" Dean said, pissed off at Castiel. He still looked a little squinty-eyed from sleep. Adam went over onto Sam's bed, where the gigantic man was fast asleep, all tangled in the sheets, spread completely out and snoring face-down. Adam gently pushed him on the shoulder, but it was like trying to wake a sleeping mountain.

"Sam?" He asked quietly, trying another gentle push. Sam grunted and turned away, peeved. Ever since he'd gone a year without sleeping, and then that horrible week or so, he'd become one of the heaviest sleepers.

"Oh, just give 'im a kick or something." Dean said, facing Cas again.

"Tell me what is going on," He almost demanded.

Castiel put up his hands defensively. "I did not know this was going to happen," He admitted.

"Know _what _was going to happen?" Dean asked, getting up from his bed and stalking up to his friend, an accusatory finger pointing at him.

"It seems that Adam is having a few…_side effects_… from the blood, sort of like what happened to Sam-" Before he could finish, Dean had seized him by the front of the shirt.

"_Nobody fucks around with my family, Cas._" He said threateningly, just inches away from the angel's own face.

"I was not trying to fornicate with any member of your family," Cas said, narrowing his blue eyes.

"I was trying to help. And his mental state is stable and will most likely stay that way," The angel took in a deep breath. "I shouldn't have phrased it that way. It is only like Sam's situation in which supernatural blood isn't meant to be mixed with that of a human's. He is suffering a few side effects."

"Well, like what?" He said, trying to let off steam as he sat down at the foot of the bed with his legs bent, and he covered part of his face lightly with his hand. "What are we looking at here?"

"The reason he woke up mortified this morning was because he now has the ability to see my wings."

Dean looked skeptical. "He _what?_"

"It reminded him of the time he spent with the angels in the Cage, and that's why he was so terrified."

Adam, who had now successfully woken the groggy Sam up, was now sitting at the foot of his bed in a position almost exactly the same as Dean's, while Sam stretch out his mile-long legs straight and had his arm around his little brother in a somewhat subtle, protective gesture as he tried hard to not nod off to sleep himself.

_How did he know that? _Adam thought as he tried to look at the huge, folded black wings and not be scared. It's just that they are the same exact color of one of the ones in the Cage…

"Let's all just calm down and go back to sleep," Sam said groggily, squinting at the light and lying back into bed. Dean eyed Castiel with his bright green eyes. "Is there anything else I need to know about?" He asked wearily.

"Go back to rest," Cas said vaguely. They didn't need to be told twice. It had been a long day for all of them.


	2. Of Monsters and Demiseraphim

Adam woke up to the sound of music blaring into his ears, and the underwater-like sound of his eldest brother yelling at them to get up . He was feeling a lot better today, and he hoped that the sudden spells of pain would be over for good. Still, the intense boughts of pain were taking a toll on his body as he still felt exhausted when he woke up. He suddenly felt a great, fluffy whack on his body, and repeated ones on his face.

He put his hand up to shield the blows, and he actually let out a laugh. It felt so good to laugh again. He opened his bright blue eyes to see his brother, Dean, whacking him with one of the motel's pillow.

"Get up, you sleepyhead. I swear, you and Sammy both are impossible!" He turned to the bed next to him and gave Sam a huge whack. Sam was face-first, snoring somewhat audibly, with a gaping mouth and his arms twisted up in all the sheets.

"Get up! I've been yelling my head off for the past five minutes!" Dean scolded.

Sam groaned and grabbed the nearest pillow and stuffed it over his head. "Five more minutes," he groaned through the muffling pillow.

"Get. Up. Now. Bitches!" Dean said as he alternated each pillow blow onto each of his brothers, standing the the middle of the two beds.

"We've got a major case down in California, do we should get going as soon as possible. Did you hear me?"

The two brothers slowly started to climb out of bed, hair all messy and over the place, both still squinty-eyed and tired.

Dean smiled internally when he thought about how he could see so much of both himself and Sam in Adam, even though Adam hadn't grown up with them.

The three stumbled outside into the crisp morning, and Dean locked the motel door behind them. He went to fish the car keys out of his green coat pocket, but couldn't find them. He looked out to the Impala, which was shining in a slight layer of dew, and Cas was already in the passengers seat.

"I thought I'd get a head start," He explained somewhat shyly.

"Okay, to the back. That's my seat," Sam said playfully as he came up to the passengers side and opened the door, looking then at Cas with a perfect bitch face.

"I must have you know that I am an infinitely old, all-powerful celestial being," He mumbled as he climbed out of the front seat, looking down at the ground. Sam slid in and slammed the door, looking almost _too _satisfied.

"Where to, Dean?" He asked his brother, who had slid in just a second later, and he jammed the keys into the ignition.

"We're headed to Northern California." Dean said, staring ahead as Adam climbed into the car, smoothing down his hair and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"We're going for a fourteen-hour drive, get cozy." Dean told Adam as he started up the engine.

"What are we hunting anyway?" Adam yawned, and following Dean's instructions snuggled up to the armrest to rest his head.

"It's another case where somebody invented the damn thing and now everyone believes it," He said, somewhat annoyed as he gripped the wheel and stared straight ahead.

"Was it with the sigil again?" Sam asked, and Dean gave him a little nod.

"The good thing is there should be a ton of lore of it, but the hard part is seeing what people believed and what came true."

He peered into the rear view mirror and noticed that his little brother was once again dozing away.

"What's the matter with him, Cas?" Dean asked, sounding concerned.

"He's fine, stop worrying." Sam said from the front, who was opening his laptop to do some research. "At least he _is_ sleeping."

After a few minutes of the radio quietly blaring in background, Sam piped up about the research.

"So, the creature that we're hunting seems to be somewhere near Yosemite area. His description is, uh, extremely tall and skinny-"

"Hey, sounds like you!" Dean joked with a smile as he turned to look at his brother for a split second.

"Har, har." Sam rolled his eyes, but had a tiny smile on his face.

"I thought it was worthy of laughter, Dean." Cas piped up from the backseat.

Dean swept his hand out, taking in the praise with raised eyebrows.

"Where was I?" Sam asked, pretending to be annoyed. "Um, it says here that he also wears a black and white suit and tie, and apparently he has…no face, only white. His motives…Let's see, I couldn't find much, but it just says they he mostly wants to be left alone. He stalks the victims from afar and when they aren't paying attention, that's when he kills them."

"Well, how can we gank him?" Dean asked.

"It doesn't say anywhere, and I looked everywhere. I guess we'll just have to use everything we got,"He shuffled through the newspaper clippings that they'd collected about the case.

"This 'Slenderman' seems to have taken at least five people's lives so far, so it's a good thing that we're heading out right now,"

The minutes passed, and the radio quietly played as the four people sped down the road.

"Think Adam's gonna be up for this?" Sam asked under his breath after a while.

Dean looked at him with a 'really?' sort of expression.

"He'll be fine, Sam. He's a tough kid."

Sam didn't look too convinced. "I'm just not sure if this is the right thing to be doing with him right now, Dean. I mean, he _just _got out."

Dean blew it off, turning his attention to the road again. "We have a while till we get there. I think he'll be fine. If he's not, he can just be the getaway car or something. Alright?"

Sam just decided to let it go.

Meanwhile, Adam wasn't having so much of a pleasant sleep. His dreams were very frightening, and he was hearing and feeling things that he had no idea how he had knowledge about.

"_Left blinker on_", "_Have we passed through this town before_?" "_I wonder what Bobby would be doing in this situation_…" Then there was this strange babbling in the whole background, which were like whispers that kept rolling and covering each other up. Some of the phrases were much louder and clearer than others, and a few times they'd all be said at the same time.

Adam finally managed to wake himself up, and he immediately grabbed his head and squeezed his eyes open and shut a few times.

To his horror, the voices still didn't stop. They just kept rolling in, and there were so many different layers of loudness and clarity, and it was making him extremely confused and uncomfortable.

_I wish I could take a shower soon. It's really hot in here! Turn to avoid that pothole. It's the eye of the tiger, it's the thrill of the fight…Maybe we'll take a pit stop soon. What's going on with Adam? _He heard the last voice right when he saw his brother's green eyes shift and look at him in the rear view mirror.

"You alright back there? Your headache back?" Dean asked, fishing around above the radio to find the painkillers.

"No, I…" Adam could barely find the concentration to talk. All the multitasking was hurting his brain. It was like trying to read, speak, listen and solve a math problem all at the same time. The whispers tumbled and spoke over each other and if Adam concentrated, he realized that he was able to make sense of each of them_._ It felt like multitasking, but it was to so much more of a grand scale that it was quite unnerving as he was experiencing memories and thoughts he never even knew he had.

"I think…" He tried to talk again, but it was really hard trying to formulate words with all the background noise going on.

"Sam, why don't _you_ ask him what's going on, because all he's giving me is sass." Dean joked, and Sam snorted.

"Here. Take two of these, you'll feel better in a minute," Dean said, compassion returning to his voice again.

Adam held out his hand and saw two little blue pills fall into it, but it felt like he was half-watching it through a daydream as all these thoughts spun around in his head.

"D…D…Dean," He managed to get out. He watched as the hand dropped the pills.

"What's going on?" He heard Dean ask, but his audible voice was being covered up by the thoughts. Adam felt panic, but it was not his. The thoughts started to get very loud and filled with concern and panic. The whispers started to fade out as these big, loud thoughts took the spotlight.

_WHAT IF WE LOOSE HIM AGAIN? WHAT'S HAPPENING? THIS ISN'T NORMAL! WE NEED TO GET HIM HELP…_

"I'm hearing voices," Adam was finally able to overpower the sounds screaming at him in his head and make a sentence.

"Oh, great!" Dean said, scratching the back of his head. "You know I was kidding when I made that joke."

He was about to pull over when Castiel spoke up.

"There's no need to stop the car, Dean. I assure you I can fix this very quickly," He said calmly.

"Okay, well hurry up. He's not looking so well." Adam felt very dizzy as blood began to drain out of his face.

Suddenly, Adam heard the largest, loudest, and clearest of the voices. "**ADAM**" It bellowed and echoed through the recesses of his mind, and was so clear that Adam could practically see the sharp edges of the word. He could also tell that it was coming from Castiel, and he was trying to talk to him.

"Yes, Cas?" He said aloud, feeling sick from all the voices. He thought he might faint.

"He didn't say anything…" Sam said as he turned around to give his brother a peculiar look. "I don't think he's alright, Dean…" He said under his breath.

**Can you understand me? Don't say things aloud.** The voice practically screamed into his ear.

_Okay, just…keep it down._ Adam tried it out, thinking out the words. He looked over to see Cas staring intently at him with his bright blue eyes.

_Don't tell your brothers about what is happening to you. I don't want them to be alarmed._ Cas told him, and Adam could pick up on all the emotions that poured through his thoughts.

_Why?_ Adam effortlessly thought.

_I will tell them when the time is right. Dean and Sam will take it out of proportion._ He warned, and his emotion seemed to be very threating, as if to let him know to not take this lightly.

_What is happening? Why can I hear all these…all these voices?_ Adam finally felt even more ill. What was going on? Would he be okay? Would this last forever?

_Stop panicking. I assure you it is only another side effect. Typically this is for minds with more dimension. Let me assist you._

The angel reached out to Adam's temple and put just two fingertips, and suddenly all the rolling, deep-leveled whispers faded into silence. Only the loud, clear thoughts and a few of the smaller ones remained. Cas kept his fingers on his temple, until finally the voices were only just one layer of the loudest, clearest and most dominant thoughts.

"He should be fine now." Castiel announced.

Adam let out a deep breath, feeling so much better since all the din and voices had been removed.

"You fixed it?" Dean asked, and he felt like he was way too far over his head with all these issues. He would have to work very, very hard to help his recovering brothers and a powerless angel. He didn't want to ever consider his baby brother a burden, though. He knew that he would never abandon him, no matter how bad things got. The kid was really starting to work his way into his heart, and he couldn't imagine leaving him again.

Adam felt his chest swell that his brother felt that about him, but then immediately felt guilty for spying on his thoughts. Why was this happening to him?

_We gave you angel blood, my blood, to help you cope mentally from the cage. Now, you're having a few side effects. You can never even remotely possess any power close to real angels, but right now you've got the powers of a newborn baby, which for humans might be considered a lot. You'll be fine, that I can promise. _He paused for a second before projecting his next thought to Adam. _Even though it may be minuscule, being part angel means you're part of my family now too. You need to trust my judgement and not tell your human brothers, understand?_

Adam felt humbled, scared and confused at the same time. Did this mean in some way Cas was like an older brother to him as well? He didn't know who he should put his trust in more.

Suddenly, Adam tried to do something himself. He focused on Cas's mind, and pushed past the surface of current thoughts and into the memories. Cas's mind was so vast and complex, he was surprised when he just happened to come across the right information at once: The intense pain he'd been feeling was his body changing to be stronger, to accommodate the foreign blood. Everything from his own blood to his bones, skin and muscles all had to transform into something tougher. The strange word "demiseraphim" began floating through his mind like a song stuck in your head. It all poured into Adam's understanding: it had been done before on humans before, but not since BC times…_I think you know enough._ Cas told him wearily, obviously not liking people in his mind. Adam quickly withdrew, it felt like kicking off the bottom of a pool and finally breaking the surface.

_Why can't I tell my brothers? I trust them with all my heart,_ Adam thought innocently.

Cas's thoughts seemed a little irritable when he responded._The time is not right, and I will let you know when it is, Adam_. However, what had started off as an irritable tone became a soft, caring emotion.

Suddenly, Cas took in a deep breath and clutched his chest.

"Something is happening. Something big." He said, alarmed, almost looked frightened himself.

"It must be very important if they've restored my powers like this. I must go," He said urgently.

"What?" Dean called from the front seat. "Well, what happened?"

"I must go. I will return." Cas insisted again, and with the fluttering of wings he disappeared.

Sam looked concerned. "I thought they'd cut off Castiel from heaven, and that's why he was loosing power."

Dean nodded. "Well, apparently whatever's going on is more important than their little family feud. All this doesn't involve us, so let's just stick to the case at hand."

"Yeah, it doesn't involve us yet," Sam scoffed. Dean looked like he agreed with him. "Well, I guess we'll just roll with the punches, right Adam?"

Dean looked back at their little brother, who for some reason was looking guilty and reserved in the back seat.

"Uh, yeah." Adam replied half-heartedly.

"You feeling better?" Dean asked, prodding him again.

"Yeah, actually. My headache is almost all gone." He beamed at Dean.

"Think you'll be up for this hunt we're going on?"

Adam grinned even wider. "Really? You'll let me help?"

Dean's expression seemed to say 'well, duh.' "You're a hunter now, aren't you?"

Adam looked happier than Dean and Sam had seen him in ages. Dean smiled to himself as he faced the long stretch of road ahead of him.

Thirteen hours and one motel put stop later, the three brothers had finally arrived in a tiny town just in the outskirts of Yosemite in Northern California.

They pulled up in front of one of the victim's homes, and the rumbling car engine cut off as they parked. Sam straightened his black tie, as climbed out of the car.

"Just wait here, okay bud?" Dean said as he closed the door. Adam watched as the two walked up, side by side, to the door. They were both wearing their official F.B.I suits, and when they flashed their badges to the mourning woman who opened the door, she quickly let them in.

"We're very sorry for your loss," Sam said as he looked at the woman who was obviously a wreck. Her eyes were pink and the skin around them was raw and dark, it looked like she hadn't slept for a while.

"I'm just glad people are taking an interest in this," She said somberly. "Please, take a seat. I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting any visitors."

The two took a seat on her flowery couch and looked at each other, and Sam decided to take over and use his people skills to console this woman in distress.

"Did your daughter have any enemies, or someone who might have wanted to harm her? " He started, like he usually did. The woman looked genuinely confused and hurt.

"Is this some sort of sick joke?" Sam was expecting the usual 'I've already been asked this' and was ready to cover it with a professional 'We're just trying to cover all areas,'.

"My daughter was _eight." _The woman explained, looking rattled.

Sam instantly felt bad that he hadn't looked into the article more. Now thinking about it, none of the articles had mentioned any of the victim's ages, but he had assumed that they were all adults. What if they were all children?

Dean decided to take over, seeing his brother's off-guard expression.

"I think what my partner here is meaning to say is, were there ever any suspicious characters in your daughter's life?"

"No, nothing I know of." The woman looked shaken up and like she was feeling very annoyed at the interview.

"What exactly are you trying to figure out again?" She said bitterly. "I was told my daughter died of a heart attack."

The brothers quickly exchanged glances again. This interview wasn't going so smoothly.

"Thank you so much for your time, ma'am." They said as they simultaneously stood up.

Adam quickly unlocked the doors of the car as he saw his brothers ambling back. Sam looked embarrassed as he tugged at his collar and Dean looked determined as the two ambled back to the car.

"We have to get this damn thing _soon _if his victims are children," He said, angrily slamming his car door. "Let's go, Sammy."

The three pulled up to the next house, and again the car engine's rumble was quickly shut off. "We'll be right back, Adam. Sorry to drag you through all this," Sam called back to him this time.

However, they both stopped in their tracks and sprinted back to the car. Adam peered over and saw why. Two legit F.B.I agents had already been there, and were now exiting the house.

"Oh, shit!" Dean exclaimed as he practically jumped into the front seat and slammed the door.

"Yeah, oh shit! Now what are we supposed to do?" Sam replied.

"Uh, guys?" Adam mentioned as he pointed to the two people, who were now very visibly coming towards the car.

"Oh, fuck me!" Dean said, fumbling with the keys to start up the car's engine. The people had already caught up to the car, and Dean let go of the keys in the ignition in defeat.

There were two people, a man around Dean's height who looked like he was in his mid-twenties, who had straight, dark brown hair and a solemn look, which was amplified even more with the dark black eye patch he wore over one of his light blue eyes.

The person he was walking with seemed a lot less scary, she appeared to be around Adam's age. She wore a tiny golden badge that said "Trainee", and she had long, straight, dark brown hair as well, with the same light blue eyes framed by heavy lashes. The man rapped on the side window, and Dean lowered it relunctantly.

"Excuse me, sir, but we've just been investigating a case here. We've got our eye peeled for any suspicious behavior. Seen anything? Because I don't normally see two men sprinting away at the sight of police," He said, lifting his eyebrows. Dean didn't know which eye to look into, and he actually felt somewhat uncomfortable under this man's intense gaze.

_I hope I've said that right. He looks pretty intimidated. Maybe they'll believe it this time. It's all about attitude. Keep it together._

This was the first time that Adam was hearing someone else's thoughts besides his brothers since the ability had fallen into his head. The man before them, who had a rough and almost mean look to him, really was a big softy in his mind. Suddenly, Adam's image of him changed and he seemed a lot less daunting. Then he also realized that he was a fake policeman as well. But how was he supposed to tell his brothers this without them finding out about is new "side-effect"? Castiel made it _very _clear that he couldn't tell anybody. He decided to just keep quiet for now.

"Is there a problem, officers? We're just cruising through," Dean replied, averting his gaze.

"Are those badges on your pockets, men?" The man asked again, using a very intimidating voice.

" We're investigating our own individual cases here, yes." Sam answered quickly. The man with the eye patch narrowed his eye and reached into the car. "I'll need to see those, gentlemen."

Sam and Dean handed them over, and exchanged a quick glance.

After a tense moment, the man spoke up. "I know a fake I.D. when I see one," The man said in a scarily low voice, and although he looked about the same age or younger than Sam, the two boys felt very intimidated by him.

"So do I," Adam piped up quickly from the back after clearing his throat, trying so sound as brave as possible.

"You two aren't officers either. You're faking it. Why are you lying?" Adam asked, narrowing his own eyes and tilting his head slightly, trying to make it clear that he was asking a question and wanted the answer.

He had to admit he felt pretty great when the blood seemed to drain from the man's face. Sam and Dean looked pretty shocked too. _How…?_ Was a pretty dominant thought that was being shared by many of them.

Dean quickly took his chance and opened up the car door and went to face these mysterious people. He stood up to his full height, but it didn't make much impact as the eye patched man was basically the exact same height as Dean.

"Who are you, than?" He asked, getting closer to the guy's face. He was actually quite handsome, but he had a few long, white scars peeking out from under his eye patch that went down the top half of his cheek. Now standing face to face with the guy, he didn't seem so scary after all. His hair was light and fluffy, and his expression wasn't daunting really, but his shining pure blue eye seemed to emit of feeling of curiosity.

To the three brother's surprise, he lifted one of his sleeves part way to reveal an anti-possession tattoo on his wrist. They all looked shocked and curious.

"So this means something to you, then. Good, because if not that situation could have gone from bad to worse." The man made a light-hearted joke and smiled a little. The brothers were still too astonished about everything that had happened in the last five minutes to smile at his joke.

"My name's Vel, and this is my sister Tam. You can call her Tammy though," He said, extending a hand to his fellow hunters. Adam was the first to take his hand and shake it. Then Dean took it with a somewhat hesitantly and shook it, the same with Sam.

"Interesting names," Sam added.

"They're not our real names, they're codes we use them to hide our identities," He said, realizing that none of them had introduced themselves. "I get it if you don't want your names to be known either." He added.

The brothers looked at each other, both looking suspicious. They'd never encountered other Hunters like this before, and they weren't sure if this was a sham.

"You guys here for the Slenderman case?" Dean asked, still looking suspicious.

"Yes, and I assure you that my sister and I have it under control. So if you'd like to head on to the next town…" Vel said quite rudely.

"No, me and my brothers here have it under control, I assure _you_," Dean retorted, looking angrier by the second. "Look, this thing is hurting children, so I'd like to just go and get this damn thing as soon as possible."

"Looks like we're on the same page then, Temper." Vel said back, and the two stared each other down for a split second before Sam intervened.

"Can you tell us what you two know, and we'll tell you what we know. Maybe we can work together?" Sam asked innocently, shrugging. Adam nodded as if to agree with him. Dean gave him a look that said 'really?' Sam shrugged back at him.

"All the victims have been children or teenagers, ranging from ages six to seventeen. Most of them were said to have died from heart or asthma attacks, and all five of them where in the woods not far from here. And, look at this." Tammy spoke up, and she pulled something out of her pocket. They were photos of the children, obviously stolen from the authorities as they were blown up and laminated. She flipped through all of them, and every single kid was clutching a single-stemmed, red, daisy-like flower.

"Now that's just creepy," Dean said, peering over to look as the pretty teenager flipped through the photos.

"Are we going to see what we can find in those woods first?" Tammy suggested, twirling a piece of her hair. The five all exchanged glances as if to reaffirm the statement.

"Great, follow us." Vel said, and they pointed to the car they'd come in, a dark red pick-up truck. The three brothers hopped into their car once again, and turned around to follow the truck.

"How'd you know they were fake officers anyway, Adam?" Dean asked once they were on the road, keeping the truck in sight but not trailing too close.

Adam knew this question was coming. "My mom dated a police officer for a little while." He blatantly lied.

He didn't sense any suspicion coming from either of his brothers, which was good. Still, he couldn't help but feel bad that he was keeping secrets from them like this. He wished that Castiel would come back soon and he could tell them, so he'd get this weight off his chest. He had the worst poker face, and he always wore his exact emotions on his face. He hoped they wouldn't question him further.

Finally, the truck pulled down onto a gravelly road.

"Great." Dean said under his breath as trees were seen in every direction, hugging the gravel path completely.

The two pairs of hunters got out of their cars and met up in the middle. Tammy and Vel had taken off their officer vests, and now just looked like normal people wearing the clothes they had on underneath. Tammy was wearing just a white tee and light grey flannel and black pants. Her older brother was wearing a dark brown jacket, black shirt but the same police officer black pants.

"Got everything?" Tammy asked them, as she herself motioned to the gun on her side. Vel looked solemn as he unsheathed a knife that he kept in a holder by his side, and Dean and Sam almost jumped when they saw it. It looked so similar to the demon-killing knife that they kept, but there was a subtle difference between the two. Vel's knife had letters in a strange language on the side as well, but the characters were different. The blade seemed to be tinted more of a blueish-silver, unlike their knife which was a deep grey-silver. The grip was also different, an off-white color with multiple grooves on it.

"What's that?" Sam inquired, stepping closer to get a better look at the knife. Meanwhile, Dean and Adam had opened up the truck and we're looking through everything they owned as Dean piled weapons into Adam's tiny arms, muttering under his breath.

"It's a knife that kills ghosts," Vel answered, looking up at Sam.

"You look like you've seen it before. We have no idea what the history is of this thing," He continued, moving the knife under the light so that it gleamed its steely blue.

"No, it's not that. It's just that we have a knife that's very similiar- but ours kills demons. We don't know where ours comes from, either."

Vel and Tammy both looked up, looking surprised.

"Well, that must be awfully useful." Tammy said, and Sam could tell by the look in her eyes that they'd had a hard time with demons. They'd had a pretty hard time too, when the only options were the colt or exorcisms before.

"Yours must be pretty useful too," Sam answered back, thinking of how that knife would have come in handy when they dug graves for hours just to burn the bones, or all the close-proximity encounters when they'd had to use a rock salt gun.

"What got you two into the hunting game?" Sam asked, feeling bad that he hadn't been so social with his two fellow hunters, who must have had pretty rough times as well.

"It was a long time ago, Puppy-eyes." Vel answered, but it still looked like it pained him to talk about it. He looked deep into Sam's eyes with his one blue one and it was apparent to Sam right away that he was a lot like Dean, just an older brother trying to protect his little sister too.

"It was a demon, and it got our mom and my little brother. We got into the game when somebody who came into town about the case offered to teach us everything. We joined their team for a little, but it's a dangerous job. It's just me and Tam now," He said quietly. It was clear he didn't like talking about it. He was just opening his mouth to say something else, when he was interrupted with a loud "Oof!" Dean had piled up so much on the little Adam that he had fallen over.

Dean laughed as he helped Adam up, and Adam chuckled as well as he brushed off his already-dirty flannel that was loaned to him from Dean. Dean brushed off his little brother's hair, and Adam twisted his head from side to side at the same time, laughing.

"I see you hunt with your family as well, huh." Vel said, nodding toward the brothers who were now picking up the weapons from the ground. "May I ask what got you three into the game?"

Sam felt his face grow ruddy as he remembered all those horrible things from long ago. There was so much to tell, but he didn't want to say it all.

"My mom was killed when I was just a baby. My dad got us into it," That was all Sam decided to say. He realized that Vel and Tammy's story must have been just as complicated.

The eldest and youngest Winchester finally joined up with the group.

"You think we're ready?" He asked, as the two brothers looked ridiculously armed to the laughed. "I think you're more than ready,"

"Let's move. Temper and Puppy-eyes, we're heading out." Vel used his self-assigned nicknames, thinking that they wanted to protect their identities just as well as he protected his own. Sam and Dean would have told him their names, but they actually thought the nicknames were fun, so they didn't say anything.

"We've got the coordinates from where the police had found all the bodies," Tammy said, whipping out a list and a GPS. "Follow me," She said, with authority. The four boys started to follow her, and their boots were crunching as they walked quietly along the gravel path.

Adam was looking around the woods, which had trees that surrounded them and had leaves so thick that most of the ground was shady. He felt the reassuring weight of his gun in it's holder, which he'd just received from Dean, and felt a little comforted. Still, this place gave him the creeps.

"What's that?" Adam asked as he happened to catch a spot of white in his vision as he was looking around the trees.

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked, and the whole group stopped.

"We're almost at the site, guys. What's the hold up?" Tammy asked, looking up from her GPS and brushing a piece of hair away from her face.

"It's probably just some trash," Dean said, straining his eyes to see what Adam was pointing at. Adam knew it wasn't just a piece of trash. It was a bright white rectangle, and it must be a paper and it had to be put up on the tree on purpose.

"Well, I'm checking it out," Adam said and he went to go and see what was written on the paper. He wondered if he was a bit psychic as well, and not only have the ability to read minds, because he felt some sort of pull towards this thing, and he felt that he knew it was important.

He saw that the paper was nailed to the tree, and the paper was browning with dust that must have kicked up. The paper was yellowing and must have been there for a long time. He reached up and tore it off the nail. He looked at the strange paper. It was crudely drawn in something that looked like charcoal, and all it showed was a few black pine trees, drawn with a bunch of stacked upside down V's, and one stick figure with long legs and arms.

He brought it back to the group, who was waiting for him, and they all looked tense as they gripped their weapons.

"What is it, Adam?" Dean asked wearily, he looked like he was really on edge.

"It's just some little drawing. It was nailed to the tree, though." He said, handing them the picture.

"I think a little kid just drew this, Adam. Maybe they were up here nailing it and that's when the thing got him. Let's just go to the first site, alright?" Dean answered dismissively, handing the paper back to him.

Adam felt himself blush as he lowered his head and trudged onward. He'd just been _so _sure that the thing would have meant something.

"It's over here," Tammy called as she motioned for the group to head left. "I think she was found just over by that tree."

They all strayed off the path, and immediately Sam noted that there was a cluster of red followers right by the base of the tree.

"Maybe she was just picking the flowers when the thing got her," Sam said innocently, hoping that this creature wasn't _placing _them in his victim's hands. Vel had knelt down and was scanning for EMF when Adam saw another paper out of the corner of his eye.

"Look," Adam said, and pointed to a tree right next to the death site, and there was another note, nailed to the tree just as before, looking like it had gone undisturbed for years.

He quickly went up to grab it, and this time his hand was trembling slightly. He suddenly felt an almost nauseating rush of fear in the pit of his stomach, and he felt himself break out in a cold, clammy sweat. He quickly looked over at the faces of his friends in the group, and they all seemed to have felt it the effects too.

"What was that?" He heard Vel say in a scared voice.

"I don't know," Dean answered back to him, he himself looking a little pale in the face. "It said in the research that this thing can manipulate its surroundings, causing people to feel fear, paranoia, or-_whatwasthat_?" His head snapped to Adam, because in reading the paper it had made a slight crinkling sound.

"Look," Adam said again, his hands trembling involuntarily as he held out the yellowing paper to show his brothers. Scrawled in scratchy, capital letters that took up the whole page, it said in lopsided letters "LEAVE ME ALONE" and again there was the crude scribble of a pine tree, just a bunch of stacked upside down V's again. The 'Alone' was underlined with a thick, uneven line.

"Let's do what he says and get out of here," Dean said in a very un-Dean like way. Just a split second later, his jaw dropped open and he let out a yell.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING!" He screamed, pointing down from the way they had all come.

"What thing?" Sam asked back, equally scared, as the environment seemed to get even tenser from all the fear that was in the air.

"He was just behind us! He was tall and skinny and I only caught a glimpse…"

"Let's just keep going, okay? Maybe we'll find something useful at the next site," Tammy said, gripping the papers with the list of coordinates so tightly that the paper had begun to crinkle. The pack of five began to move considerably faster this time, following the short seventeen-year-old who was paying close attention to her GPS.

Dean physically stiffed up and Adam knew he'd seen the creature out of the corner of his eye again. Then, with an intense spike of goosebumps all over his body, Adam realized that he had seen the creature too, just barely out of his peripherals. He was tall and skinny, like the mix between and spider and a human, and had a scarily blank white head with no face. He was following them, about thirty feet back. Adam felt so scared that he just wanted to scream out.

"Here's the site from victim four, a ten-year-old boy." Tammy announced, and to everyone's fears this spot had a thick cluster of red flowers that didn't seem to be growing anywhere else. "There's another paper here," Adam said quietly, reaching up to the old drawing that was again tacked on the tree right above the red flower patch.

It was a tree again, and another stick figure. All it said was "Follows" down the side of the page.

"How is visiting these sites even going to help anything? We know that this thing is following us," Dean said, and with his last sentence everyone felt shivers up their spine. They all just wanted to leave and abandon the case, but knew they had to stick with it.

"I just saw him again! He was _right there!_" Dean said, pointing a shaking finger in the direction he'd seen.

They all whipped their heads to look, but nothing was to be see through the heavy leaves. Vel suddenly looked quickly around him.

"Where the hell is my sister?" In looking toward the direction that Dean had been pointing, they hadn't realized that Tammy was absolutely nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, the mood the air seemed to physically change. Paranoia set in for the four remaining boys.

"This is a set up, isn't it?" Vel said, sweating visibly from his brow. He looked ill, his face being unhealthily pale, which amplified the dark swatch under his uncovered eye. "You're not real hunters. You never were. You work for _him,_" He hissed the last word under his teeth, staring at the brothers with a look of wild betrayal. Suddenly, he was gripping the ghost-knife tightly. "I know what you are," He threatened under his breath, looking like he was about to stab somebody.

"You brought us into these woods! How did you know exactly where everything was, huh? I bet you're on Slenderman's side!" Dean said, looking equally ill. "Come out, Tammy!" He cried out, smiling like it was some sort of sick joke.

Suddenly, Vel grabbed him by the front of his coat and shoved Dean into the nearest tree.

"Don't fuck with me, Temper! I've lost everything, EVERYTHING, but her! Do I look like this is a set up?"

He looked pissed off and scared like the rest of them.

Dean yelled back at him. "Do you think I don't know what it's like? You think you're the only older brother out there? I'd fucking _die_ for my family, Vel."

"Well, yeah, so would I!" Vel shot back, shoving Dean again.

"Just help me find my sister," He demanded coldly, finally letting go of Dean's coat and backing away. Dean wound up his arm and punched Vel straight in the face.

"That's for being an asshole," Dean said, rubbing his fist.

Vel was doubled over and clutching his face and he flipped Dean the bird with his other hand.

"Okay, okay. That's enough," Sam said, stepping between the two. He wasn't looking so hot either, as his hair started to look damp as beads of cold sweat started to roll down his clammy temples. "Let's try and find Tammy. Where did you say you saw the thing?"

Dean pointed silently down the gravel road. "He was just standing there, watching." He visibly shuddered. "Maybe we should start there,"

Adam tried to focus very hard and pick up on where Tammy was. He tried to shove aside all the fearful thoughts emoting from Vel, Sam and Dean as they clogged up his mind, and he tried to pull in the other thoughts from people around. He was able to hear the quietest, tiniest of voices that seemed to be at the very lowest levels of the thoughts, and he tried to zero in on that, as from afar Adam could just TELL it was coming from the tough, pretty girl that he'd admit, he'd sort of starting crushing on since he'd found out she was a hunter too.

"You okay, Addie?" Dean asked, putting a hand on his brother's shoulder which sort of made him jump.

"Yeah. I...uh...I just saw him, and I think he'll lead to to her," Adam replied quickly, feeling like they'd pick up that he was lying through his teeth. However, he also felt relieved he hadn't lost his grip on her miniscule thoughts. He was able to quickly zero in this time, and he visibly shuddered as he heard the thoughts, which weren't clear enough to form words, but they emoted pure fear as phrases like "help me" "run away" "oh my god" bumped and collided and he heard the equivalent of the thought of a scream spread over everything. Adam almost felt the ghost of a tug on his chest, and he just KNEW she had to be in this direction.

"I saw him just up there, I think he has her. " Adam announced as he set off the way he felt the tiny tug at his chest.

The three adults looked absolutely spent as they followed Adam off the path and deeper into the heart of the woods.

"Is that..." Vel pointed a trembling finger to yet another piece of paper, this time nailed to a tree stump.

"Let's just leave it be," Dean bit back in response, but Adam silently went over to see what the yellowing paper said. He peered over at it. In the center was a drawing of the Slenderman, a figure with grotesquely elongated arms and legs, wearing a suit and tie, and just a plain white circle for a face. On both the right and left side of the drawing was the same all capital letters in the scratchy scrawl, repeating "NO NO NO NO" over and over.

"Where is she, Kid? I need to find her!" Vel yelled at Adam, finally being overcome with a bought of paranoia and fear.

"I...I think she's that way," Adam said, pointing to where he felt her thoughts coming from. Vel took off, and the brothers started to sprint after him.

Suddenly, the grass sprung up and seemed to be about two feet high, and the brothers pushed on until they broke out of the trees and into a clearing. There was a pile of old cars and a semi-truck, which looked like they'd been abandoned for at least ten or fifteen years.

"Where is she, Addie?" Dean asked, looking around at the old cars.

"She's close. She's in an enclosed space," he said, not having to concentrate as hard as her thoughts were much closer. Then he felt chills of a different kind when he realized he had no way of explaining his way out of this statement. A few seconds went by, and Adam felt extremely grateful when the brothers didn't question him, for some reason. Maybe it was because the fear around them seemed to rise even more, and everyone's chest tightened even more.

"We're closer to it, too. Can't you feel that?" Adam said under his breath.

They nodded and tried to look around the old pile of cars. It had gotten somewhat dark since they'd started out. Had they really been gone that long already?

Dean switched on his flashlight, which illuminated another paper tacked up to the rusting side of one of the cars.

"DON'T LOOK OR IT TAKES YOU" The creepy scratch scrawled out, with a few random underlines, scratches and X's elsewhere on the page.

Vel ripped it down and tore it into as many pieces as he could, throwing them down to the ground.

Sam yelped and suddenly was squeezing his eyes shut.

"I just saw him, Dean. I literally just saw him over there," Sam said quietly, as panic started to creep into all the men's hearts. Sam and Dean instinctively grabbed Adam and stood on either side of him, protecting him. They pressed their backs to the sides of the car and tried to keep hidden from the monster's veiw. It was then that Adam remembered Tammy had said it prayed on kids, and that was why he'd taken Tammy the first time. Adam felt like he might be sick. His two brother's didn't let go of his arms as he pressed on either side of him. Dean started to take out a few of his weapons, quickly glancing over his shoulder to make sure the _thing_ wasn't there again.

"We're not letting him take you, Adam." Sam whispered into Adam's ear, and Adam felt like giving him a great big hug. He loved his brothers so much.

"There! That's an enclosed space! She must be in there!" Vel cried out, pointing to a U-shaped bathroom complex. He took out his gun and knife, jumped up from his crouching position, and without a seconds hesitation, ran into the depths of the bathroom.

The quickly got up from their hiding place and sprinted to catch up.

"What are you doing? Get back here now, Vel!" Sam called after him, but the words didn't seem to reach him. They all peered with scared, wide eyes in shades of green and blue into the depths of the white-tiled bathroom. There was another paper right at the entrance on the door post.

"ALWAYS WATCHES" it said on the top, and separating the two words was an oval with X's for where it's eyes should be. "NO EYES" the bottom phrase said, underlined a few times. Adam felt dizzy as he let the paper float to the ground.

"Vel? You in there?" Sam called out, and was met with a blaring silence. The boys all felt chills creep up and down their spines as a slight breeze seemed to come out from within the white-tiled bathroom. Dean tried shining his flashlight down it, but he saw nothing but the opposite wall and a twist in the building. "Vee?" He called into the depths.

Finally, Vel came bursting out of the other doorway. "She's not there," he said in a heartbroken voice, breathing heavily. Suddenly, there was a shrill scream extremely close by. The four boys whipped their heads to see where the noise was coming from: and there was Tammy, being held up by the awful creature. All of them were frozen in their tracks as they watched.

The man with grotesquely skinny long arms and legs was holding the young girl up with many, many spider-like arms that where spilling from his back, while his two paper-white hands held her face right by her ears. The thing seemed to breathe in by his blank, white face, and Tammy's head fell back and her throat was doing a gulping motion.

Adam watched, frozen in place, as a whitish-blue light surfaced from her mouth, weak tendrils trying to hold on to the body as it came closer and closer to the faceless man's area where his mouth should be.

_That's a soul_, Adam thought to himself, distinctly remembering what Sam's had looked like in the Cage.

He suddenly jumped as he heard a gun being fired. Vel was firing at the wretched creature, but it seems to have absolutely no effect. Vel stalked closer and closer, and finally threw his knife with expert training at the creature, and it stuck straight into it's side. However, there was still no interruption as the soul was climbing closer and closer to the blank mouth area. The three Winchesters quickly ran, the two older brothers pulling Adam in between them as they flattened themselves onto the wall of the bathroom, all breathing heavily with wide eyes.

There was an even louder boom that seemed to rumble the ground, but the three where blind to what was going on with the monster.

"I've scared him off for now," Vel called out to them, his voice sounding very panicked. Dean was the first to peek behind the wall, and when he saw the coast was clear he motioned for his brothers to follow them. Vel was looking feverish with worry as he was cradling his unconscious little sister in his arms. "He didn't get it. I saw, he didn't get it." The man who was no older than twenty-five kept repeating to himself.

"Please, Marie. Please be okay," He smoothed part of his sister's cheek with one of his thumbs, and a second later he saw the slight rise of her chest as she took in a breath. He looked overjoyed, despite the dire situation they were in. "It's okay. You're okay," He said, almost crying.

Suddenly, Adam saw the creature again, just standing there, silent, watching, as he peeked out from a pine tree.

"D-" He tried to call out, but he felt his whole body jerk as he was grabbed away. He hit his head on the hard ground and opened his eyes to see that he was surrounded by a field of tall grass and too many red flowers to count. Suddenly, despite all the fear, paranoia and panic the air was teeming with, Adam felt just a little bit brave. It started off as just a tiny spark, but he felt it encompass his whole chest.

"Come get me, you skinny bastard!" He cried out all around him, and he just barely saw him hiding away in the shadows of the forrest.

Suddenly, the thing was right upon him, grabbing him by the sides of the face, as he felt the hundreds of spider-like arms puncture and pinch into his back and lift him into the air.

Adam's bravery quickly vanished as he was consumed by fear as he felt a painful tugging at his chest, as the monster was trying to dislodge his soul. He looked wide-eyed into the expressionless, white face, it's head was tilting back slightly as it looked like it was taking in a deep breath. In a moment of pure panic, Adam suddenly found himself skidding face-first onto the ground, with so much force that he tumbled a few times before he could stand up. He straightened up, and felt his hands , knees and face were all torn up from his fall. The creature was about twenty feet away, and looking at his hands, which now had nothing in between them. Adam quickly strained to get up off his belly and he stood up shakily.

Adam knew he was armed to the teeth: he quickly ripped out an axe that he'd been holding strapped to the small of his back, and gripped it tight despite the painful stinging from his torn up palms. He tried to look deep within himself and try and find that strange intuition, and just when the creature seemed like it was about to come and teleport near him, Adam took a leap of faith, wound up, and swung the axe as hard as he could.

He opened his eyes and saw that he'd hit it perfectly: the white, blank head had rolled off its suited shoulders and onto the red flower infested ground. Ink black blood was oozing out, and a few sprinkles of the ink has splattered and were decorating Adam's cheeks like freckles.

"Sam! Dean!" Adam cried out as loud as he could as he didn't let the body out of his sight.

"Adam!" He heard his older brother Sam cry out from not too far away as he heard the great rustlings as they pushed through the heavy trees. He saw the two come sprinting toward him, and suddenly felt his chest overflowing with relief, love and the sense of security. Sam, who got to him first, tackled him into a big bear hug, and Dean quickly caught up and did the same.

"You nearly scared me to death!" Sam scolded him, not letting go as he tightened his grip.

"Don't pull something like that ever again," Dean said gruffly, finally pulling out of the big tackle hug.

He quickly poured gasoline and even dumped salt onto the body, and dropped the match. The whole body was engulfed in flames.

"This son-of-a-bitch won't ever get anyone else," Dean announced, watching the flames with fierce eyes. "Let's get the hell out of here,"

They met back up with Vel at their cars. He'd wrapped his sister up in a blanket, and although she still looked pale and frightened, her eyes were open and she seemed to be sitting up okay by herself, with just a little leaning support onto her older brother.

Vel had taken off his eyepatch, probably because it would have been ruined from all the tears. The seemingly tough man had broken under all the pressure, and tears leaked freely from his eyes as he put his arm protectively over his little sister, who snuggled down even deeper into her blanket. Vel had scratches that had turned into white scars clawing up his eye, which was a cloudy-white blue. He looked up at them with both of his eyes this time, and looked up at them with the look of a five-year-old, and he seemed to pour relief into every direction. It really contrasted with the scary man they thought they'd met as a police officer earlier in the day.

"I won't be needing this anymore," He said huskily to them as he brought out the ghost knife. "I'm quitting the life for good. I want to settle down, maybe find a girl. Get Marie going with a good life too. I think that's what I've wanted the whole time." More tears leaked from his eyes.

Dean took the knife graciously. "I think you're the best guy I've ever met," he admitted to him. "May I know your name?"

"My name's Eliot Victor." he said. "Elliot Victor, Leader. See? Vel. She's Marie Alisha, Teammate. I guess you can use our system now that we're retiring for good. " He rubbed his sister's shoulder reassuringly.

"Take good care of that knife, now..." He paused and looked like he wanted to know Dean's name as well. " ."

"Take care, Dean. Your family too," He said happily, and they could tell he meant it. Finally, the Hunters parted as the three ambled back into the Impala.

"All in a day's work, right Sam?" Dean asked, opening up the front door.

"All in a day's work," Sam agreed. They didn't say anything else the whole ride, but only enjoyed each other's company over some low music. Still, Adam couldn't help but still feel that tiny seed of guilt as he thought about all that he was withholding from his brothers, who would really do anything to protect him. He wondered what had happened when he was being attacked, feeling strange about himself. One second he'd been under a tight grip with no escape, and the next he was tumbling on the ground twenty feet away to safety. What had he done? _How _had he even managed to do it?

_Please come back soon, Castiel. _He prayed silently. He felt scared and alone, and wanted someone to answer his questions.

"We'll get you cleaned up as soon as we get to the motel, alrighty Addie?" Dean said, when he'd noticed that one of Adam's cheeks was all scraped up with dirt and grass. "We'll make you look good as new. Did you get thrown?" Adam quickly nodded, deciding to just go with what they said. He didn't know how much longer he could keep all this lying up as he looked into his caring family member's eyes.


	3. Liberation of the Selkie

The three had finally arrived at the motel, and Sam had dropped off to bed, exhausted, while Dean stayed up to help Adam in cleaning up his wounds.

"Keep this on your cheek, it'll reduce the swelling." Dean said quietly, handing Adam a bag of ice."We need to pay the most attention to your hands, because we don't want them to get infected."

Adam patiently held out one of his torn-up palms as he held the ice to his face, and his brother carefully began wrapping it up in gauze. Adam wished he could tell him everything, right now, but he felt guilty towards Cas's warning as well. He sighed and pressed the bag of ice a bit harder onto his cheek.

"Man, this thing really threw you hard, then." Dean muttered, using quick motions to tell him to switch hands with the icepack so he could dress the other one.

Adam decided to try and say _something, _and maybe Dean would figure it out on his own. He felt scared and like he really needed to tell somebody about the confusing things happening to him.

"Well," He started, cringing just slightly as the pressure of the wrapped gauze pressed painfully into his wound. His brother took a second to look up at him with curious eyes.

"I…I don't exactly know what happened. One second I thought it was going to be taken, and then…I was away." He admitted quickly, and he averted his eyes.

"What do you mean?" Dean asked softly, turning over Adam's hand and starting to wrap it in a layer of light brown ace bandage.

Adam felt scared and frustrated. "One moment the thing had me trapped, and then…then I was tumbling away, about twenty feet away," Adam tried again, his voice shaking. He thought that telling this secret would make him feel better, but it was actually making him feel more upset and scared.

"What do _you _think happened?" Dean asked, finishing the wrapping and looking him right in the eyes with an inquiring expression.

"I…I don't know." He admitted, and just saying that aloud made it that much more real. He _knew _it wasn't just his imagination.

"All I know is that something like that happened to me and Sam. One moment we were trapped inside a church when the Cage was opening, and the next we were on an airplane above the church, because of the work of angels. Maybe there was some sort of intervention, Adam." He looked at Adam with a happy expression, and Adam could feel the warm feeling that was pouring through his brother's thoughts. He could tell that Dean really had grown to care for him, and this made him very happy but guilty as well.

"I think you have some angels watching over you, little brother." Dean said, and Adam suddenly felt a strong bitter emotion of nostalgia and sadness pouring from Dean's thoughts. There was a small silence as Adam could tell Dean was trying to not let his expression show on his face.

"Freshen up and get to sleep. You've had a rough day, bud." He said finally, getting up himself and heading out to the bedroom.

Adam remained in the bathroom, trying to figure it out what could have possibly happened. Maybe it was some sort of angelic intervention. _But then why would they have you still so close? And why would they let you get hurt? _Adam shook his head as if trying to shake his thoughts out. He pulled off his dirty shirt, and splashed some warm water carefully on his face and upper chest to clear off a bit of the dirt, but his cheek still stung a lot. He gritted his teeth as he washed the raw skin with some soapy lather, and he still felt its sting a while after he'd washed the soap off with water. He turned around to grab a towel to dry his face when, with a jolt, he thought he saw something jet black in the mirror, contrasting with the bare skin, white walls, and blue jeans he was wearing. He was too scared to even move and turn off the faucet.

What if they hadn't really killed the black suit wearing monster? He whipped around, and didn't see anything black in sight. He felt blood start to drain from his face and his hands start to get clammy as he remembered the soul-deep, painful tug he'd felt within the monster's spidery grasp.

He went to turn around slowly, keeping his eyes on the mirror. He saw the deep black again, this time he realized that it was _on _him, on his back!

He snatched up a hand mirror quickly, feeling himself quivering. He turned around and held the mirror up to his face, and positioned it so he could see the back of his blonde head and back. He nearly dropped the mirror when he saw two deep black lines that ran along the length of his shoulder blades.

He looked closer at the pause-button like lines, and he saw that they weren't really dark black lines at all, but fluffy rows that shone with sheens of purple and blue and turquoise, much like multi-colored raven's wings.

_Raven's wings…_Adam thought to himself, and twisting his arm around, Adam ran his finger down the length of the line. His fingers where only met with the smooth, warm skin of his back, but in the mirror he saw something else. The black fluffy material was acting in a way very similar to down, as it was pressed down briefly and sprung right back up in little flashes of purple and blue once his finger had passed. This time Adam really _did _drop the hand mirror. It fell to the tiled floor with a clatter, and instantly the mirror cracked with a glassy shatter and shards skipped around the floor.

Adam pulled on his shirt quickly, feeling horrified, as he dodged to avoid the broken bits of silvery mirror on the floor. He slammed off the light switch, and was met with a wall of darkness. He'd seen roll-in bed that the motel had brought in before, but it had looked creaky and unstable. He felt scared and rattled after his first hunt, and, feeling like a toddler again after a nightmare, he climbed up into the nearest bed in the dark, which happened to be Sam's.

"Can I stay here?" He whispered quietly. His brother woke up and opened an eye lazily to look, and he nodded and grabbed another pillow to cover his face with. Adam crawled under the covers, and although he was plenty warm couldn't shake the icy, pinched feeling he was getting deep in his chest. Without thinking, he reached out and hugged Sam, even though it stung his palms a little.

"Thank you for everything you did for me today," He whispered, feeling like he wanted to cry just to get rid of the sickly emotion he was feeling. Sam reached up and ruffed up the kid's hair.

"I was even worse off after _my _first hunt. You're doing good, kid." He said quietly, and Adam pulled out of the hug and snuggled down to try and sleep. He still felt a little scared, but then again felt reassured when he heard the breathing and the faint, sleepy thoughts of his two brothers around him.

_Please come back soon, Cas. I need you. All of us need you. _Adam silently prayed in his last desperate plea before he was able to nod off to a rocky, shallow sleep.

When Adam woke up, the terrifying events from yesterday felt like just a dream. He rubbed his eyes, and realized with a smile that he was shoved right up on the back of the bedpost with just the tiny corner of a sheet covering him, while his huge sasquatch of a brother had somehow managed to take up the whole bed again. Careful not to wake him, he got up and pulled on a fresh pair of loaned jeans from Dean.

Dean was already up and shaving in the bathroom. Adam instantly remembered and felt guilty about breaking the mirror.

"Sorry, I think I knocked into something yesterday," He called to him.

"Eh, don't worry about it. How does hitting the coast today sound?"

Adam felt his emotions pouring through his face as he beamed. "Really?" He said excitedly. He couldn't wait to see the beautiful ocean and smell the breezes. He hadn't been to the coast in _ages. _

"While we're down here, can we go to Disneyland or SeaWorld? Or what about Legoland?" Adam heard his brother Sam pipe up from behind him. Dean snorted 'Yeah, right' and dried his face.

Soon enough, the three had hit the road and were going off to find breakfast down somewhere by the coast. While eating, Dean picked up a newspaper to scour and see if they could find any jobs.

"Look at this," He said through a mouthful of toast, pointing at an article for Sam to read.

"How weird does this sound? Six have drowned, in what police are dubbing a 'mass lemming-like suicide'. That's actually this town!"

"No wonder the diner's practically empty," Sam said, looking around. "Stuff like that must be pretty bad publicity,"

Suddenly, there was the smash of a plate somewhere in the diner. A couple had a broken plate on the floor, with food strewn everywhere.

"I'm so, so sorry," the woman seemed to almost plead the waitress as she herself crouched down to help pick up the broken pieces of ceramic.

"Oh ma'am, don't worry about it," the waitress reassured her. The woman sat back down in her seat, looking on edge and uncomfortable.

Suddenly Adam felt a large spike of fear coming from the woman, and very loud, scared thoughts. Something didn't seem to be right between the two people. Adam perked up and payed attention to the couple.

There was the woman who had broken the plate, who was young and very pretty, Adam guessed she was around thirty. She had dark black, very shiny long hair, and a round baby-like face with big, shiny, black eyes rimmed with heavy dark lashes. The man she was with seemed like a disagreeable fellow: he looked considerably older, maybe in his mid-forties, with a weathered, scruffy face an mean-looking pale blue eyes.

The man reached across the table and roughly grabbed the young woman by the wrist, and she cringed away from his touch. "Why have you been breaking everything lately? That's it, we're going back home. You need to start making dinner for the 'rents." The man said in a scary, authoritative tone as he gripped the beautiful young woman's wrist much too tightly and started to drag and force her out the door, which she put up a small struggle, fear in her great, black irises.

"Something about that wasn't right," Adam said aloud, following them with his eyes now as they exited the store.

Adam then caught a glimpse of where the couple had been sitting. "Look," he tapped Sam on the shoulder and pointed to where the young woman had been seated. The cushion was completely drenched in water, and so was the floor and the table top.

"Maybe she spilled her water too," Dean said, reading more into his article.

"No, look." the two waters looked untouched. He also pointed down at the ground, where every single footstep the woman took had a wet footprint, and it didn't fade as the woman went farther away from the puddle under the chair. The brothers went out the same exit as the couple had, and even her footsteps outside had turned the concrete damp and made it a darker color, all the way out to the car which they were just getting in. The older man was shoving the woman into the car, even pushing her head down like he was making an arrest as he forced her into the backseat.

"She looks like some sort of slave to him, or like she's being kidnapped. " Adam said under his breath. For some reason Adam felt like this situation felt familiar, and he felt like sometime a long time ago he was told a story, but now he couldn't remember no matter how hard he tried.

"Should we follow them?" Sam asked, just as the car squealed out of its parking space.

"We might be able to help that lady out, even if this isn't a case." Dean said as the three went back to their car. They followed the car for quite some time, and it brought them closer to the coast, into a sleepy fishing town. Finally the car stopped in front of a beachy, one-story wood house painted in nautical blue and white. The man, forcibly again, grabbed the lady and dragged her back into the house.

"Should we knock as policemen?" Sam asked, his concern clearly showing on his face; he really wanted to do something.

"Sure," Dean replied, fishing around the glovebox for the proper I.D.

Finally, they'd gotten all dressed out and went up together to the house, and Sam quickly rapped on the door.

"This is the police. Please open up." The running around and clatter that could be heard before was quickly silenced. They waited by the door for a full three minutes before the woman timidly answered the door.

"Yes?" She asked, looking like she was shrinking back.

"We received a call from one of your neighbors about a domestic violence complaint?" Sam said, trying to be as professional as possible.

"I think it might have been some other place, sir. Everything's perfectly fine here," She practically had to choke out the words, where her eyes cried out 'please don't leave'.

"Is the mister home? We need to ask him a few questions. " Dean said, trying to peer into the house.

"He...he just left. But I guess we can wait for him to get back," the woman answered, opening the door all the way for them.

"Please, come in. I was just making dinner for Mike's parents, I'm sorry if it's so messy." she said, but Sam and Dean could obviously see that the mess had been caused from him chasing her around the house. There were a few flipped chairs and a wrinkled up rug, indicating that she'd been running away.

Meanwhile, Adam was scouring his mind to remember the story he'd heard sometime a long time ago. All he knew was it was one of those Irish tales his grandmother would always tell him.

Suddenly, he remembered. He connected all the information they knew: the wet seat and footprints, all the drownings...

But how was he supposed to contact his brothers? He didn't want to blow their cover. He really wished they'd give him a uniform and a little "Trainee" badge as well. He fished his phone out of his pocket and found Dean's number. He decided to keep it simple and straightforward: "S-e-l-k-i-e." he typed out, and quickly hit send. Then, to his frustration, he heard a beep somewhere in the car. _Are you kidding me?_ Adam thought, frustrated out of his mind. He wished he looked older so he could help. Heck, technically he _was_ older than his brothers from a soul point-of-view, because of his time the cage. Adam pouted and texted the same message to Sam. He heard another beep come from the front seat.

Adam let out a groan and pounded his head on one of the car cushions. That's it, he should probably head in there.

He took out his wallet (it only contained around five dollars), he slipped out a business card, and quickly scribbled on the back; "Selkie, Irish folklore". He jogged up to the door and knocked. Dean looked out the window and saw him, and raised an eyebrow.

What? He mouthed at him.

Adam pointed at the wallet. Come here! He mouthed back.

Dean got up and answered the door.

"Hello officer. I noticed you dropped your wallet a second ago," Adam said, holding out his wallet with the business card just barely poking out of the top.

"Thanks, kiddo." Dean winked at his brother and shut the door lightly. Adam was glad he could help out, but he could probably help even more if he was in the room with them. He would probably ask to get one of those "trainee" badges pretty soon.

However, Adam could tell when Dean slid out the card that he had no idea what Adam was talking about by all the confusion and racking of the brains he was doing. Adam hit himself in the forehead and went back to wait in the car, he'd explain to them later.

"I... Could you two come around later when my husband comes back?" the woman asked nervously, and it was very obvious the man wasn't going to come out any time soon.

"Sure. Please give us a call," Dean slipped her a quick business card.

"Please, if there is any domestic dispute at all, please call. We can help," Sam said to her under his breath, and she looked up at his concerned face with terrified eyes.

"Thank you, but I won't need to call because there's no problem." She practically forced herself to say again. "Have a nice day, officers."

"You too, misses...?" Sam held out his hand to shake hers.

"Misses Penn. Silvia Penn." Sam shook her hand, and when he pulled out of the handshake his palm was dripping wet, but her skin appeared to be completely dry. The two left and went back to the car, and Sam looked utterly confused. It wasn't like her hand was sweaty or anything, plus the water had been cold. And, in examining his fingers, he realized it smelled salty too.

Dean rapped on the back window.

"Hey, Addie? What's this all about?" He pressed the business card to the window.

"I think I know exactly what this is all about. All the signs are the same from a story that my grandma used to tell me when I was a little kid."

The boys climbed in the car ( they were going to scout out the house for a couple hours when Mike came back) and turned around to listen to Adam explain himself.

"According to the legends, Selklies are sort of like fairy seals, in which they have a few magic powers and can transform into humans whenever they want, but they need to keep their sealskin in order to change back. There was a story of a fisherman who stole the sealskin and kept it hidden away, and then the seal woman has to marry him. Selkies are known for being very beautiful, and they leave little parts of the sea wherever they go. _That_ would explain all the water. I'll bet you anything that man is keeping her skin somewhere hidden, and that's why she can't leave. My grandma told me there was nothing worse than the torment a Selkie suffers when they want to return to the sea."

"Do you think this has anything to do with the drownings?" Sam asked, keeping a close eye on the beachy house.

"I dunno. Maybe we can out her, and maybe she'll tell us some useful stuff." The older brothers exchanged glances.

"How could we do that?" Dean asked, peering through his binoculars.

"Well, first of all..."

Adam felt like he was on top of the world when he got to put on his fake police uniform with the shiny gold "trainee" badge flashing on his chest.

"We'll only let you come with us _sometimes_," Dean laughed, but Adam knew he would be able to convince him otherwise later on.

"What if she starts lying or denying everything? Then how are we supposed to solve this case? This Mike guy sure isn't gonna fess up," Sam said.

"I'm really good at telling if people are lying, generally." Adam said, but it immediately sounded more suspicious than it had in his head.

"Kinda like with Tammy and Vel, right?" Dean said, and Adam immediately pricked up when he sensed a tiny growing bit of suspicion in his brother's thoughts. _Listen, we'll always be here to talk if you need to. _Dean had the words practically on his lips when he decided otherwise and didn't say them, but Adam still heard. Dean was thinking about what Adam had told him the other night about being 'thrown'. Things didn't seem to add up for him, either.

The three knocked on her door again, and she peeked though the window first and then opened the door.

"Um… hello again," She said, looking very confused. "Is there a problem?"

"We'd like to ask you a couple questions about the mass drownings that have been going on in the area. Do you happen to know anything about this?"

She immediately started shaking her head, but Adam could easily pick up her blaring, frightened thoughts.

_I never meant to hurt anybody. Every time I try to escape it never works. I can't help it anymore. _

With all the foreign emotions pouring over Adam, they were so strong he almost felt the need to cry himself. The bitterness of the loss of the sea and the longing for the freedom and flexibility being in a seal's body in the coursing ocean made Adam understand her intense sorrow. _There's nothing like a Selkie being kept from her home, _He remembered his grandmother telling him during story time.

"Listen, we know what you are." Adam piped up. "You're a Selkie."

The woman looked like she was going to scream, or shut the door in their face, or maybe both. "B-but we can help you." Adam quickly added. She looked up at them with those huge, reflective black eyes and heavy lashes, and Adam now realized in retrospect that they were quite…sealy.

"You really can? But…I have no idea…" She started to cry. "I'm guessing you're not real police, huh?" She said quietly in a watery voice.

"Mike saw me dancing around with my brothers and sisters in human form one night, and he stole my skin and hid it away somewhere. He keeps it in a chest, and he always wears the key around the neck. I still haven't found the chest and I can never get the key," She sobbed, climbing out of the house and onto the porch, burying her face in her hands. Her silky and shiny black hair cascaded down over her face, and Adam now realized that her hair quite closely resembled a seal's slick black pelt.

"Do _you _have anything to do with the drownings here?" Dean asked again, and this time the woman broke down in deep sobs and suddenly slumped down on her knees, sliding down the door and resting her back on the door.

"I…never knew…it could happen," She sobbed, and Dean couldn't resist a pretty little woman in distress. He knelt down next to her and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Tell me exactly what happened," He coaxed her, rubbing her shoulder gently.

"I knew that my homesickness was getting worse after the first year, but as time went on it got so much worse. In our human bodies we still keep a little bit of our powers, and I was trying to restrain them so badly. But just about a week ago I couldn't control it anymore. My sickness spread to others. I tried to stop it, but the sickness was too strong. They suddenly got my need to r-return to the ocean…and….they d-drowned themselves…" She started to sob again.

"If you can help me, the people will stop drowning themselves. After five long years, I just want to go home."

"Where do you think the chest is?" Dean asked. "And where is your husband now?"

"I think he hid it somewhere down in the rocks at Marine beach, because he never lets me go anywhere near there," She looked up at them, with tears clinging to her eyelashes. "Thank you for helping me. I promise I'll never do something so stupid again,"

"Sam and Adam, why don't you try and find the chest, while I'll try and steal the key." Dean said, helping Silvia to stand up. "Where is your husband?"

"He's in the shed out back, getting ready for his fishing trip tomorrow." Upon hearing this, Adam immediately knew he could pinpoint the chest's exact location. He just need a minute of concentration to go unnoticed by his brothers, which was going to be tough. He decided to see what he could figure out in a minute. He shoved aside the three active brains close by with some difficulty, and found the faint thoughts about tweaking hooks and setting up fishing lines from not too far away. He tried the same strategy he'd done with Cas, and pushed through the current thoughts and into the memories. However, the specific memories didn't float up so easily to the surface this time. Cas had probably helped him out a little. Instead, it was absolute chaos.

Adam tried to grasp the feeling of keeping a huge secret, and felt his big secrets bubble to the surface. Most of them where weird habits or embarrassing childhood memories, but he was able to quickly find the path to the chest. Latching onto the memory, he quickly looked to see where it would be. He could mentally see the path: down to the beach, to a tumble of big black and grey boulders, in a small triangle-shaped cave, and around the left corner was a great big steely chest. It looks practically indestructible, with a thin coat of swirls of salt from the mists of the ocean that made their way into the cave.

"Adam!" Adam finally whipped his head to face his brother, who looked at him strangely. "I've been calling your name for the past minute." Adam felt a blush creep onto his cheeks. He had completely forgotten about keeping conscious, he'd just been lost in the memories and trying to find the chest.

"I'm…a vivid daydreamer?" He said, trying to cover it up.

_I'll ask him later with Dean, _He heard Sam think, very clearly, and Adam instantly felt very scared. But for now, they had to both concentrate on the task at hand and make sure no one else in this town drowned.

"Let's go down to Marine, then." Adam said, and they started to walk back to the car. Man, this uniform was hot. Adam tugged at the black collar.

"Are these always this uncomfortable?" Adam asked lightheartedly, and he couldn't wait to just wear his tee again. Sam laughed. "Not so eager to be Mr. Junior policeman anymore, huh?"

They drove down to the beach and walked down the stone steps together, as the salty mist moved around their coats and combed through their hair.

"It could really be anywhere on this whole beach, it could even be buried. How are we supposed to find it?" Adam felt like this was a question that Sam was using to test him. Adam didn't want to loose time any more than Sam, but he couldn't just sprint for the chest. Well, if they were going to be questioning him later anyways, he might as well get the chest before anyone else tried to 'return to the sea'.

"It's…it's this way," Adam finally said, and took off toward the familiar outcrop of rocks. He found the triangle-shaped cave with little difficulty, and waited at the entrance for his brother to catch up.

"How the hell do you know where it is, Adam?" Sam sounded completely serious now, looking at him with dark blue eyes.

"Please, Sam. Right now we just have to make sure that no one else is going to die in this town." He entered the damp and dark cave, and was met with the powerful smell of seaweed and salt water. It was hard to see in the cave, but Adam knew that the left turn was coming up soon, and the chest would be turned on his phone and was holding it up like a flashlight to try and see around him, and followed Adam quite slowly.

Suddenly, Sam grabbed Adam in his powerful arms and shoved him against one of the damp walls, stretching a thick arm over his brother's throat, creating a restraint that Adam had no way of escaping. His brother looked very scary in the tiny light given off by the home screen.

Sam started firing off random words in Latin, and Adam closed his eyes. What was happening? Had his brother somehow gotten possessed and was trying to kill him? Adam felt the chilly water from the cave walls wick into all his clothes and drip down his back and neck. He felt terrified as he looked into his brother's eyes with marble-blue ones, pleading for him to let go. Suddenly water was being splashed into his face. Adam squeezed his eyes open and shut to get the water out, and tried lifting his arms to wipe off his face.

Sam came to realization that Adam was really just Adam, and not some demon leading him into the cave to kill him. Adam didn't have anything anti-possession on him, after all.

"But if you're just Adam…" Sam's face fell and he looked at his brother with a strange expression, and he looked extremely confused. He moved his arm away from his throat, but this time he held the little teenager's shoulders pinned to the wall.

"Adam, tell me what's going on," Sam demanded.

"I…I can't." Adam said, reaching up with his hands to rub the water out of his eyes.

"Why can't you tell me what's happening? How did you know where the chest was?" Sam demanded again, and Adam felt afraid as the dark, concrete-hard walls reminded him of the cage.

"I can't tell you! I just can't!" Adam felt that the dark rainclouds he'd expected on the horizon had finally arrived.

"Why?" Sam insisted again, this time sounding hurt. "If you're working with someone and not telling us, I swear I-"

"It's because Cas told me not to, okay? I can't tell you anything, please, you have to believe me." Adam said, now on the verge of tears. What if the only family he had left lost trust in him? What if they left him to live on his own, a high school dropout with no money at all? Sam realized that he might have gone a bit too far, and let go of his brother, who immediately sputtered and wiped the water off his face and rubbed his eyes.

Adam only put his hand on the cold, steel box, showing his brother that he wasn't lying. He coughed and got a bit of water out of his throat and nose.

"Can we please just help this girl?" He said under his breath, feeling scared about what Sam might have done. None of this had been a good idea. He should have just taken the extra hour to cluelessly search for the chest. Sam said nothing, but the two worked together to haul the chest out of the damp cave and onto the beach.

Suddenly, two figures where rushing toward them from the beach. The younger brothers dropped the clunky chest onto the sand, and as they got closer they realized it was Dean and Silvia, looking like they were running away from something.

"Quick! You got the chest?" Dean called out, as he had a big golden key in hand. He quickly jammed the key into the lock and twisted, and the top sprung open.

Silvia rushed forward and grabbed armfuls of the sealskin, which looked like yard of shiny, smooth black silk.

"Thank you," she said through teary eyes, and kissed each boy on the cheek. Adam was surprised at how salty, whiskery and _sealy _it felt.

She started to rush down to the churning water. She had the look of absolute bliss on her face as he rushed into the shallows, wrapping herself in the black silk. The last thing the brothers saw of her was a shiny black arch of a seal's back as she disappeared deep down in the sea, beneath the waves.

"Hey!"

They whipped around to see that the husband had shouted angrily. He looked mad as hell, his weathered face twisted in rage. He was holding a large shotgun. He older man looked horrified as he saw his wife disappear into the depths of the ocean forever. He lined up his pistol towards the boys, and without even a second's hesitation, he fired.

"No!" Adam screamed, and Dean gasped out and held his side.

"Dean!" Sam cried out, rushing to support his brother.

"I'm okay, it's fine. It just grazed me," Dean said gruffly. Adam looked with horror out of the corner of his eye as he saw the man lining up to fire again. He felt the same intense, throughout-his-whole body fear and terror he'd felt within the Slenderman's grasp, but this time it wasn't just for his own safety, but for his brothers as well. He felt his love and admiration for his two older brothers mix with the pure fear, and suddenly he was tumbling to a stop on the gritty sand-dusted cement right by the Impala. Luckily his jeans stopped his knees from being scratched up and his wrapped hands broke his fall. He looked up to see Sam skidding to a stop and Dean tumble with a metallic thud into the parked car in front of them, his head leaving the tiniest dent.

"Hey!" The car's owners had seen him dent the car, and were now stalking over angrily from where they'd been looking out at the water.

"Drive!" Dean called to Sam, tossing him the keys as he put pressure on his side, and the three scrambled to get into the car. They were off with the squeal of tires and burning rubber. Sam was in distress over if Dean was okay.

"Do we need to bring you to a hospital?" Sam asked, looking over at his brother with his eyebrows knit together. Dean gritted his teeth and said gruffly "No. I'm fine. Eyes on the road, Sammy."

The air was tense in the car. Adam couldn't feel glad that he'd saved anybody. Right now, he just wanted to be invisible.

_Cas, please. We need you. Dean's hurt. We really need your help. I need your help. I can't hold back this secret much longer, _Adam thought with a desperate plea. He wished he could somehow locate the angel and talk to him through thoughts just like he'd done earlier.

Just then, the car seemed to get considerably heavier, and it slowed down just a tad.

"Hello," Cas calmly said from the backseat. Sam, who was already on edge, jumped in his seat, yelled and immediately pulled over. Dean heard Sam yell and unconsciously joined in. Finally the car engine cut off and they were on the side of the road, the dust just starting to settle down again. There was a silence.

"Sorry if I startled you." Castiel admitted.

"Well, a friggin' lot of things just happened to us in the past ten minutes, so, yeah I think we have the right to be _startled,_" Sam shot back, but it was clear he was just upset and worried about Dean.

Cas reached over the seat and put a hand on Dean's shoulder, and immediately Dean stopped gritting his teeth and was healed. "God damn," He muttered under his breath, relaxing his head on the headrest.

Adam looked over and noticed that his friend's giant black wings looked a little worse for wear. A few feathers were missing, and others were tweaked, ruffled, or shorter. He also saw a glowing white sap drip from a few places where there were slashes, and Adam figured it to be his blood.

"What happened?" Adam asked quietly, reaching out to lightly touch one of his feathers. He was surprised when, what he saw as clear as day right in front of him, slipped right through his fingers and he felt absolutely nothing. "Are you alright?"

"I was called back to heaven because there's a war going on, a civil war between the two beliefs. My powers were restored and I was called back and meant to play as a pawn in the war. It's absolute chaos up there," He explained, ruffling up his great black wings again and tucking the wounded raven-wings carefully behind his back.

"I barely managed to escape. I can't really explain the motives not in Enochian, but I can tell you that the whole ordeal is quite distasteful." He shifted his glance to look out the window. _Let's just hope they don't find me, _Adam understood the concept quite easily, but he realized that the angel was thinking in a different language.

"Can we talk this out over lunch? Something about being shot at just makes me starved," Dean joked from the front seat, and the car was started up and speeding down the road in no time.

When they reached the first burger joint they saw, Dean practically sprinted out of the car. "Oh, I could use something good right now." He said under his breath.

They all sat down, and after ordering their food, there was a huge elephant in the room as no one knew where to start.

"So," Dean started up, looking at Cas. "I'm hoping you can explain to us how I'm even alive talking to you right now."

Castiel looked back with tired blue eyes. Adam saw he was shifting his wounded wings slightly, nervously.

"Do you mean how you got from one point to another so quickly?" Cas asked, looking across the table into Dean's green eyes. It was Sam and Dean sitting on one side next to each other, and Adam and Castiel on the other side.

"Well, I'm not sure how to put this lightly, but you flew." He said, quickly giving a sidelong glance at Adam, in which only Adam caught sight of.

"Flew, like angel-zapped? But if that wasn't you, than who did it?"

Adam wished he could just sink into the floor and disappear.

"It was Adam." Adam avoided everyone's glances and felt himself shaking slightly.

"But…" Sam said, confused.

"The blood we gave him has induced a few side effects. He's effectively become what us angels call a _demiseraphim. _We haven't practiced this since BC times. Adam has also been using another common angel practice of hearing other's thoughts."

Adam finally looked up slowly to see his brothers staring at him with wide eyes.

"When did this happen? And why the hell didn't you tell us right away?" Dean asked, and he was accidently coming off a lot angrier than he really was.

"He didn't tell you because _I_ told him not to tell you."

Adam suddenly looked and saw that Cas had extended one of his wings and had it protectively at Adam's back.

"Adam, I thought…." Dean looked at him like he was some sort of freak. Adam was suddenly filled with anger. He'd done everything for them, and this was how they paid him back? Making him wait in the car all the time, talking down at him, making him feel like a little baby, making him feel like a freak for something that wasn't at all his fault…

"Why are you looking at me like some kind of freak? I was only trying to help!"

_I never asked for this! You all put me through this! _Adam 's thoughts practically screamed, and he knew Cas was picking up on it with ease.

Adam curled and uncurled his fists. With all his anger, suddenly the window that was right beside popped with a huge crack.

_Adam, calm down. _Cas warned him directly in his mind. There was another pop as the crack in the glass extended even farther. Adam pressed his lips together, and roughly stood up, pushing his chair behind him.

"I'll be waiting outside," Adam seethed, walking straight out the door. Adam spent the next fifteen minutes feeling horrible as he sat in front of the shiny black car, digging the rubber toe of his converse into the dusty ground. He was still hungry, too. Finally, the three men were walking back to the car.

Adam looked up, and he felt really bad about what had happened before when he yelled and the window cracked.

"I'm sorry for yelling," He said quietly, and it came off sounding way younger than he'd meant. He stood up, and unexpectedly Sam pulled him into a big hug.

"I'm sorry about earlier today, and yelling at _you_." He confessed, ruffling his brother's blonde hair once he'd pulled out of the hug.

"Why couldn't I tell them, Cas?" Adam inquired, tilting his head just slightly as they piled into the car, things were forgiven. Castiel sighed. He clearly didn't want to say the reason, but he was going to anyway.

"Because once the process is complete, it's irreversible." He started out.

"So?" Dean asked, behind the wheel once again.

"Well, the blood helped Adam be strong enough to cope with the aftermath of the Cage, but back in BC times, most demiseraphim perished prematurely, because the strength they'd initially received transcended their human bodies and caused death. This only happened to about half of them, so I figured that it would be worth it for Adam."

Dean looked outraged. "Are you friggin' kidding me?" He gripped the wheel very tightly.

"Are you saying Adam's going to die, and you didn't say _anything?" _

Castiel looked back at him with narrowed blue eyes.

"No, I didn't say will die, I said could die. It's much better than going insane and dying from lack of sleep, Dean." He said, trying to remain calm. There was a tense silence. Adam felt paralyzed and numb at this new information. He didn't want to _die_!

"I'm sorry, Adam. For everything. For being a huge jerk to you, and I wanted to thank you for saving my life." Adam looked up at his eldest brother, who he had so much love, respect and admiration for, and couldn't help but feel horrible. He only was able to nod, his throat had a lump in it. There was the flap of wings, and the angel in the backseat was gone. Adam felt like he was way in over his head, with everything.


	4. Sound the Alarm

**Thank you everyone for your reviews! I am hoping to keep writing this until all my ideas are used up. Just as a quick note: my idea of Adam is a bit different than the one in the show, because he is much younger and smaller than the college age Adam. Thanks again! I hope you enjoy this new chapter :)**

* * *

The car ride back down to Bobby's was mostly silent. Adam looked out the window at the rolling landscape as it slid by his bright blue eyes. Dean looked very angry as he gripped the wheel. Adam felt horrible for not telling them everything when he had the chance.

"I'm sorry. For not telling," Adam said finally, still avoiding eye contact with the two in the front seat, shifting his eyes to look down at his feet.

"I'm not mad about that, Adam. I'm mad about what Cas did to you." Dean said, and without warning he punched the steering wheel.

"God dammit!" He cried out, letting out a huge sigh. Adam felt a huge influx of emotions pouring from his older brother, and Adam almost felt like crying himself.

_Why can't things ever be easy for us? _He heard Dean's thoughts cry out bitterly. Dean recalled all the events as Adam watched. Instead of just the voices and words from the thoughts, this was the first time Adam was able to pick up something visual.

Adam felt Dean's heart-wrenching pain as he saw Sam coming toward him out of the blue, a puppy-eyed and extremely relieved and happy look on his face. "Dean!" He'd called, when out of nowhere, Sam had fallen to his knees. Someone sprinted away as Dean rushed up to Sam. Adam felt Dean's pain as his heart was beating fast, as he watched the life drain away from his only family's face.

Adam could see it through Dean's perspective as the door between him and the beautiful room shut. He felt the pain and desperation Dean felt as Adam had pounded on the door, screaming out "Dean!" Dean had felt a sick wave of nausea at the similarity of the two situations, and Adam got chills just watching.

Dean rubbed his head between two fingers and kept one hand on the wheel.

"I just don't have all the answers," Dean said in a low voice.

"Who says you have to?" Adam answered; still amazed at everything he'd seen Dean deal with in his short life.

Dean got a sad yet almost loving look on his face and reached back to ruffle his littlest brother's hair.

Dean looked like he'd really grown to like this little guy. He wasn't going to lie to himself and say he loved him from the start. He'd never really given him a chance, and mainly because the anger that his dad had seen someone else after mom had died had gotten in the way. But now Dean didn't doubt he'd grown a great big soft spot for the kid.

They were interrupted when a cell phone rang from inside the glove compartment. Sam quickly grabbed the handle and opened it, snapping open the cell phone.

"Hello Bobby?" He answered. Dean let out the breath of air he'd been holding in. You never knew what to expect when there was a phone call.

"Yeah, we're heading back right now. Probably a few hours. Yeah, he's alright." Sam answered, smiling slightly. There was a pause. Adam and Dean waited for a while as Sam's face started to fall more and more. "Okay. We'll get back as soon as we can."

Sam shut the phone and stared off into space for a split second before looking at his brothers with a 'bad news' face.

"Bobby told me that he's got some info on when and where the Leviathans are going to meet next. We need to somehow find out what they're discussing, but it might be too dangerous." He sighed. "It's not looking good, Dean. I think they're planning something big. He just said for us to come back and we'll figure it all out then. "

That night they stopped for a quick dinner but not for a motel, because all three of them just wanted to get back to Bobby's and figure out what to do next.

Adam was exhausted from all the events of the day, and dropped off to a heavy sleep right after dinner in the back seat.

"Hey," Dean whispered, and with a little sparkle in his green eyes he held up a can of shaving cream he'd accidentally left in the front seat. Sam looked at him with a confused face.

"What, I don't get it-" He said somewhat loudly.

"Hey! Shhhhhhhh!" Dean hissed back. He motioned spraying out the cream in his hand, and then he itched his nose and brought his hand quickly to his face.

He raised an eyebrow playfully. "Eh? Want to be on the inside for once?"

Sam took the wheel, reaching over Dean, and Dean turned around and sprayed out a dollop of shaving cream into Adam's perfectly outstretched hand. He chuckled quietly and added under his breath "Welcome to the family, Addie."

Sam snorted and quickly darted his eyes back to look for a second before returning his eyes to the road. Dean tickled his little brother's nose lightly. Adam wrinkled up his nose and squinted his eyes, but went back to sleep. Dean tickled his nose again, almost laughing aloud. Adam's hand was stirring, ready to slap himself in the face…

Dean was ready to laugh his ass off, but unexpectedly Adam's hand quickly twisted around and Dean was met with a face full of shaving cream. His eyes went wide as he looked at Adam, who was now laughing _his _ass off.

"You can't prank a physic, dummy!" Adam laughed as Dean quickly scraped all the foam off of his face with his hands, and pretended to be mad as he turned back around and grabbed the wheel back from Sam, but he was trying to contain his smile as he stared at the road. Sam looked back at his little brother with a smile and started cracking up. Adam and Sam high fived, and Dean snorted. "Yeah, whatever." He scoffed, swiping his face down again to get the tiny bits of foam he'd left. "I'll get you sometime."

Finally they arrived back at Bobby's. It was dark and quite late at night. The boys all walked out into the chilly air and quickly went back up to the house. Sam knocked on the door and their breath swirled opaque in the cool air.

Bobby quickly opened the door, and they could tell he looked tired.

"C'mon, Bobby. You were supposed to be enjoying yourself on vacation," Dean scolded the older man. He sighed. "I cut it early once I got the call about the meeting. I'm not much of a vacation guy, anyway." Bobby said, inviting them inside. Dean looked like he agreed and they all came into the house and the door was quickly shut, as it was so brisk outside.

"Well, look who's back." Bobby said to Adam as he went to get the brothers a few beers before they'd sit down and began to plan. Adam averted his eyes and shoved his hands deep into the jacket he'd borrowed from Dean.

"Good to see you're up and running fine," He added. Adam didn't know what to say, even though he appreciated the man's concern.

"We crashed here for a little while you were gone, so hope you're fine with that." Dean said, flopping down on the couch with a satisfied groan. "Man, I've missed this damn couch."

"What'd you need this ol' place for, anyways?" Bobby asked as he handed beers to Sam and Dean.

Dean nodded towards Adam. "He was a mess, Bobby."

Adam felt extremely uncomfortable as he sat down on the couch next to Dean.

"Cas told us we could fix him up using angel blood, so that's what we did. He hasn't had anything happen like what happened to Sam," Dean said, taking a swig of his beer.

"You used _angel blood? _And you didn't even _think _to call me first?" Bobby retorted, seeming a bit angry.

"Well, we didn't want to interrupt your vacation-" Sam tried to add.

"You feeling alright, boy?" Bobby asked directly to Adam. Adam was a bit surprised that he was talking to him like he'd known him for as long as Sam and Dean.

"Yeah, I'm okay." Adam said, which got him a suspicious lift of an eyebrow. "I guess you could say I have a few..er… "side effects"?" He added.

Bobby got up and went to his bookshelf and searched for a moment, and grabbed a book and practically threw it at Dean.

"Read it cover to cover. First, we gotta talk about these damn Leviathans." He sat down, looking all three of them right in the eyes, and continued.

"Alright, this is what I got tipped from Frank. Roman's holding a meeting down in an abandoned warehouse somewhere near that old field they have. Apparently that's where they are going to finalize their plans to take over. We need to somehow listen in. Oh, also I've heard rumors going around that they aren't hunting humans to eat anymore."

Sam looked at him with a surprised look. "Well, that's good, isn't it?"

Bobby looked confused himself. "I've heard they've actually resorted to eating monsters instead. Now, this might seem like a good thing, but I also heard that by doing this they're getting even stronger. So it's kind of a tiny win/big loose situation."

The three brothers all exchanged glances. Bobby settled down in his chair with his beer and sighed.

"So about the meeting. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Dean asked Adam, giving him a little nudge on his shoulder.

"Just because he can hear them at the same time doesn't mean the thoughts were self-generated, Dean." There was a rush of air around the room as a few papers went swirling away, and there stood Castiel again.

"Dammit! Couldn't you have just came through the door like a normal person?" Dean asked, startled as the angel had popped up just a few feet in front of him.

The dark-haired man tilted his head to the side slightly. "But I'm not a 'normal person'…"

"Okay, let's cut to the chase. What's going on?" Sam asked, clearly seeing that Dean was still a little angry with Castiel about Adam's situation. Dean didn't even look at his friend for a minute as he clenched and unclenched his jaw.

"If heaven was in order, which it's absolutely not, this is probably what their biggest interest would be." Cas announced in a low, grave voice. He looked pretty roughed up and rustled. "I intend to take charge and help in heaven's best interests."

Adam was looking away from both of them. "I…honestly, I don't think I could do it, Dean." He said, looking ashamed and afraid as he answered to Dean's idea.

Sam and Bobby looked annoyed. "Okay, what's going on here?" Sam asked, folding his arms.

Adam spoke up to answer what he had seen in Dean's mind. "He wants me to spy on the meeting by hiding someplace nearby to listen in. You know, with..." Adam almost looked embarrassed and like he didn't want to say.

"Then we need to start training you," Castiel interrupted, looking at Adam with eyes that were actually very…kind.

"Why can't you do it yourself?" Adam asked, wringing his hands. He never signed up for this. Having the whole fate of the world on his shoulders by using something he'd picked up _days _ago?

"They'd be able to tell, because I have much more power than you. But you'd be able to spy undetected."

Adam felt sick. No, he couldn't do this, not all by himself…

Then, something inside him woke up and he felt that same tiny sense of bravery that he'd felt alone in the clearing of flowers. He thought of all the things his brothers had gone through, and that was only a few of the things he'd seen. _Be brave, _his little conscious whispered in his ear.

"That's the spirit." Castiel said, sensing the change in Adam's attitude. Cas was actually being somewhat supportive of him. Maybe it was because he was the one who'd gotten him into all this mess.

"We are going to start now. Triangulate, Adam. Find me," Cas said without warning in a deeply serious voice, as a gust of wind blew through the room and he'd vanished with a whoosh.

"Wait, but I….!" Adam called out innocently, raising his bright blue eyes to look at his eldest brother. Dean looked down at him with his green eyes, looking at him like he'd known him all his life.

"What am I supposed to do? I don't think I can…" Adam buried his head in his hands. "I don't think I can help. I'm just a kid, I never-"

Dean put his hand on his shoulder, and didn't say anything for a second.

"Yes you can." He said gruffly. It wasn't a question, but a rock-hard statement.

"We're not perfect either, Adam. Do you know how many times me and Dean have messed up?" Sam added, coming up and sitting next to his little brother as well. Adam looked up at Sam. He wanted to be brave like his brothers.

"Okay," He agreed, still looking uncertain. "I'll try."

He closed his eyes, and first shoved all of the people around him thoughts away. He imagined that his mind could scan the area like a great big radar bing, and he tried to reach farther and farther, looking for the essence that he knew to be his friend and mentor.

He was stretching it to the limits and considered stopping when I picked up just the slightest of thoughts. He blindly followed that direction, reaching farther and farther. He suddenly got a head-splitting headache, and his concentration slipped a tiny bit. He reached up to gingerly touch his head, and continued on despite the pain that he felt.

Finally, he pinpointed the angel. He was somewhere deep within some forest, in a random place.

_Good, _the thought from Cas seemed to come from far away. _Now, what am I looking at?_

Adam had to choke down a lump in his throat. This was all too fast! He couldn't do anything like this yet.

_Yes, you posses the ability. _Cas tried to reassure him. _Tell me what I am looking at. _Adam shut his eyes even tighter, trying to do something, anything. He tried pushing past the current and into the memories, but immediately knew this was the wrong move again. He came back to the current thoughts, and just by the words he knew that Castiel was looking at trees.

_How else do you think, Adam? _He heard Cas project to him again. Images? Adam thought to himself, trying to think of how he could possibly see that.

He had barely noticed when the black he was seeing started to get a tiny blurry green smudge in the middle. _Try to see what I am seeing. _

The smudge started to get only slightly clearer, and the green started to spread across the black. Adam started to see the trees, all of them had fallen to the ground a long time ago, judging from how nature had begun to take over once again. Vines had started to climb onto the smashed trunks, and tufts of long field grass was growing in the rotting soft wood.

_This was where you were raised the first time. _Castiel explained to him, and soon Adam could access all of Cas's head. He heard the thoughts, saw the sights, felt the breeze on his cheeks, heard the birds chirping. _You may feel like you are inside my head, but it is only spying, this is not possession. You cannot control me like this. _

Adam opened his eyes and the angel was right in front of him at Bobby's, his deep blue eyes not inches away from his. Adam flailed his arms and scooted back on the couch, not expecting such a surprise. However, Adam couldn't shake the feeling that somewhere in his blue eyes, he was sad.

"You're a fast learner," was all he said. Then, he disappeared _again._

"I told you they're dicks," Dean laughed, taking a swig of his beer. "You alright?"

Bobby looked up at Dean. "I wouldn't be taking this so lightly, Dean. Nothing good can come from mixing blood like that," Bobby warned. Dean looked away, genuinely concerned. Adam listened in as Dean worried. According to the angel, Adam only had a fifty/fifty chance. It was the same odds as flipping a coin.

_I'm sure he'll be fine. _Dean thought to himself. Right now, he needed to start training the little guy so he could come on more hunts with them.

"You tired?" He asked Adam, picking up the book Bobby had thrown at him. Adam shook his head. "Not really. My head hurts again, just a little though." Bobby picked out a book quickly for Adam to read.

"Read all of this. The quicker you do, the better. I'm going to sleep." Bobby said gruffly, handing him a ragged old-looking book with a brown leather cover.

"Night, Bobby." Sam and Dean called at the same time. Dean looked at the book he'd picked up, turning it over in his hands.

"Guess I'd better do some reading, huh," He said mainly to himself. Sam opened up a newspaper he'd been meaning to read, as he stretched out on his belly on the floor right in front of the couch.

"Great, now I'll have to be a damn ninja to get past you." Dean joked as Sam's body was almost the exact same length as the couch.

"That's the point. Do your homework. Not like you ever did in school, anyway." Sam retorted. Dean scoffed and opened the cover, which cracked slightly. "Nerd," He replied, turning the cover page.

"Shut up, Dummy!" Sam shot back, but he was laughing.

"Bitch," Dean replied calmly, scanning the first page.

"Jerk." Sam said automatically, spreading out the whole newspaper on the floor.

"Ya, you?" Dean said with a heavy cali accent, using the awfully annoying surfer phrase he'd picked up in California.

"Oh, shut the hell up." Sam laughed.

Adam bent his knees and lay the length of the couch, his shoes barely touching his brother's leg as he held the book toward the ceiling and read page after page of Bobby's handwritten, shortened notes about all monsters and their weaknesses. Dean and Sam were silent as they delved into their own projects, but they all felt the pressure of defeating these Leviathans.

When Bobby came back downstairs the next morning, he found all three of them crowded by the couch. Sam had fallen asleep face-down, his cheek pressed to one of the newspaper panels, and some of the paper was slightly wet from drool as he held a pair of scissors lightly in one hand. Adam was fast asleep, one arm dangling over the edge of the couch and the other across his chest, as the book he'd been reading was open and covering his face. Dean was snoring away contently, open-mouthed, his head bent back and resting on the back on the couch, his hand lightly holding the book (he was only about a quarter finished). Bobby chuckled and sipped on his morning coffee. "Then there's these idjits," He said under his breath to himself, going up to the coffee maker to brew a few more cups for his boys.

Adam woke up to a blast of bright light as the book on his face, which was keeping him in lovely darkness, was ripped off.

"Good morning starshine, the earth says hello!" Dean looked at him with a sparkle in his eye as he crouched down and with some effort flipped Sam over so he was lying on his back.

"Fuck off," Sam groaned, annoyed, waving his hand in Dean's general direction.

"Come on, we're going to have a day full of training today." Dean said, and then had a burst of laughter as he looked at his brother's face. The cheek where he'd slept on the newspaper had the black ink on mirror-image writing on the whole side of his face. Sam stood up groggily and rubbed his eyes.

"Hey," Dean said, smacking him lightly with a rolled-up newspaper. "Check out this story. Think we can squeeze in one more thing before the big meeting?"

Sam rubbed his face and hand a hand through his hair, and then opened the paper.

"What happened to training today?" He joked, and then paused for a second to read the article.

"Three this soon? This guy must be having a bad day," He said, looking at the article. Adam peered over his shoulder to see, and saw a photograph of a great big hunk of gelatinous skin and what looked like fat and hair.

"It's a shapeshifter. They're pretty dangerous, especially because you won't know who to trust." Sam explained to Adam, turning the page to scan the story.

"Let's go gank 'em, we can just start with some hands-on training," Dean said with a wink to Adam.

They rumbled up to the place where the murders had taken place, and it was a sketchy-looking warehouse. Yellow caution tape fluttered in the breeze, but no one was in sight.

"I guess they're just marking it as a crime scene, but they're done investigating. Alright, let's head in."

"Just like that?" Adam asked, slamming the door behind him.

"Yup." Dean answered, taking out his gun. "You never know what you'll find."

They went up to the heavily rusted door, and Dean kicked it open and his two brothers followed behind. The warehouse was dim and they were hit with a wall of stench. Adam quickly pulled his jacket over his palm and put his hand over his nose. He followed at his brothers heels as they quickly went to turn on their flashlights. They looked around and saw piles of skin and pinkish gelatinous solids.

"Dean, I think there's something weird going on here." Sam said as he looked around, scanning the damp and dirty room with a flashlight.

"I think so too," Dean answered, going up to one of the shapeshifter's remains.

"Look at how some of it's collected on the walls. Why would they…" Sam came up to the pile, motioning with his hands. "They must have been pushed up against this wall, and tried shifting in self-defense."

"The shifter wasn't the one killing people," Sam said with realization.

"Something was killing the shifters. And how many people did you say died? Three?" Dean finished for him.

Sure enough, there was three piles in different places around the warehouse. In the last one, something white and shiny gleamed from the pile. Sam knelt down to examine it, and gingerly picked it off the pile with two fingers and held it up to Dean, a look of realization on his face.

"Shape shifters can change into other humans, but never this." The white tooth he was holding up was bright white and pointy like a cat's.

"Is that a Leviathan tooth?" Adam asked, squinting his eyes to see it more clearly in the dim light.

"I think so. Remember how Bobby said they were going after monsters to eat? What if…" The brothers all exchanged glances.

"Let's get out of here," Adam said with a shiver. This strange warehouse was giving him the creeps. How had three shifters been collected in one place anyway? His brothers had told him that they were very rare and dangerous, and they'd only encountered them a few times. Why had they all come here? And where had the Leviathan gone, was he still close at hand?

The brothers started to leave the dimly lit room, and came back to the door.

"Oh my god," Sam breathed, looking at the back of the door. It had been scratched viciously, and so deeply that some of the shiny metal was showing beneath the rust.

"We're really in for it now," Dean said, pointing his flashlight at the scratches. "Maybe this time we're actually going to have to help the lesser of the two evils."

Dean and Sam, when they exited the building, started to scan the building tops right away.

"What are you looking for?" Adam asked, touching his gun tucked on his side, feeling on edge when they'd figured out the weight of the situation.

"Security Cameras. Bingo!" Dean said, pointing at one that wasn't so far away. "We're going to try and hack into it and see what we can find out."

The three went up to the camera, which was fastened onto a lamp post. Sam peeked underneath and saw that it still had the recording memory tucked into the bottom of the camera. He looked at Dean. "Well, how are we going to get it?" He asked.

Dean pulled out his gun, aimed, and shot the camera right in the glass. "Well, we don't want our faces for the stuff that's beamed God-knows-where." He said, putting his gun away. He looked at Adam. "You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" He made the jab at Adam again. Of course he could tell what he was thinking. Adam hoped it wouldn't become a regular joke to him. It was a little endearing, though. At least he wasn't ignoring the problem or treating him like a freak. In fact, Adam felt somewhat glad that Dean acted like it was such a familiar situation.

"And I'm thinking it's a good idea," Adam laughed in response.

...

Sam looked grumpy as he folded his arms. "I am not going to do that. Can't we just find a ladder somewhere?"

"Where the hell are we going to get a ladder, Sammy? And then what are we going to do with it when we're done?" Sam shrugged and looked grumpier when he realized he was right. "Fine."

"You're such a sasquatch," Dean joked and he went to sit on his brother's shoulders.

"This never happened," He grumbled in response.

"Alright skinny-bones-jones, grab my hand. You're gonna stand on my shoulders," Dean said, extending a hand to Adam. Adam grabbed it firmly with two hands and started to climb up. "Watch it!" Sam called up to Adam as he pressed his foot down a little hard. "Sorry," Adam squeaked, climbing finally up to the top.

"You really gotta put some meat on those bones, string bean." Dean joked as Adam put one foot on one of Dean's shoulders and one on the other and balanced cautiously. "Shut up," Adam responded, craning his neck to look up to the memory box.

"Just look towards the end, and take it out like a battery." Sam instructed from way down below. Adam popped it out pretty easily. "Got it!" He exclaimed, feeling really proud of himself. He was actually being a help! Even though he was being made fun of for his small physique. He got down to a sitting position and jumped, landing on his feet.

"Let's go," Dean said, jumping off of Sam as well, as he started to jog to keep up with his little brother.

"What, I don't even get a thank you? Hey! Wait up!" Sam called, spreading out his arms with upward hands to show his annoyance.

Sam had finally figured out how to connect the camera to the computer and they were scanning through the video. They finally got to the part they were looking for: when four people came in, and one came out.

"Look at that," Sam pointed out, and Dean paused the video. "Look what that girl has in her hand. She looked like she was checking it for the address." He tapped the screen, where one of the victims was looking at a piece of paper.

"Maybe she was given an invitation." Adam suggested.

"Or a threat," Dean said, as he played the video and they saw the woman's eyes flash the telltale silver in the glare. He paused it, and her face looked extremely worried and scared as she looked around before heading inside.

"We need to find that paper, and see what was on it." Sam said as he closed his laptop.

"I need a drink," Dean said, rubbing his head.

"Fine, I'm staying in with Adam. Maybe we'll work on a little training."

"Alright. I'll call if something's up." Dean went to head out the door. Soon, they heard the rumble of the car as he took off to find a bar.

He walked in and settled down on a barstool, sighing and seeming to sink down into the stool. They never got an easy case, did they?

"Just a beer, please." Dean asked the lady behind the bar wearily. She nodded and started to make other drinks. Dean looked around the bar to see what kind of people were there as he waited.

"Because it's important to me, okay Darren?" He heard the girl he was a couple of stools away from say, arguing with the man next to her. He didn't mean to eavesdrop, but they were being so loud.

"I just don't think it's a good idea. You're not like _them_." The man's voice lowered at the last sentence. Dean's ears pricked up. Something about their conversation seemed strange.

"Maybe the ones we've met. But, what if... what if there are others out there who are like me? Shouldn't I be able to find out?" Dean was now absorbed in their conversation. "Please. We know what to do if things get out of hand." She begged him.

_That's it. I'm following them after this. _Dean told himself, and we he saw them get up, he quickly got off his stool as well.

"Sorry miss, I gotta run." He said, leaving a few bills on the table as he went to quickly follow the two people. The bartender rolled her eyes and looked extremely annoyed. He took his phone out of his pocket, flipped it open, and quickly called Sam.

"What's up?" Sam answered quickly.

"I overheard something strange at the bar. I'm following." He said in a low voice. "I think the Leviathans are somehow are getting ready for their next batch."

He followed the two as they turned down a dark alley. He made sure to stay far enough behind so that it wouldn't be suspicious, and he turned the corner. Immediately he was thrown to the opposite wall, an arm stretched over his throat.

"What do you want from us?" The man was asking him, his eyes narrowed as he breathed heavily. Dean used all his strength to shove the man off. He then wound up and punched the man as hard as he could. His fist exploded with pain as he felt like he was punching a statue. The man hardly seemed phased as he looked up at Dean with stone-cold, deep brown eyes. He wiped his lip and went to lunge at Dean, but Dean had already whipped out his gun and, in a spit second, shot his attacker right in the stomach. Dean's face registered in shock to what he had done. Killing monsters was one thing, but this...

The dark haired man stumbled back, a look of surprise on his face, as his two hands clutched at his middle. "You just shot me." He exclaimed, looking Dean right in the eye. His eyes suddenly narrowed and he frowned. He quickly tore one of his hands off his middle and was reaching for Dean's arm when the girl quickly put herself between the two.

She had her fingers barely brushing Dean's coat, but she had her hand firmly planted on Darren's chest, warning him to stay back.

"Please. We're better than this," She said soothingly, and took Darren's wrist from his outstretched arm gently. Dean first noticed a charcoally smell in the air, and looked down in surprise to see the man's hand was completely an ashy grey with a flaky, firewood-like texture, and his fingertips were glowing like embers. Darren took his own wrist and held his hand almost behind him as he stepped away, his arm clearly shaking as his hand still let off an audible sizzle.

"That really hurt," Darren said, looking at him with narrowed eyes, but he only seemed a little peeved now, instead of angry. The girl had come up to him and was now clinging onto his normal arm, looking at Dean fearfully as she seemed to sway on her tip-toes in a fight-or-flight position.

"Why did you follow us from the bar? What do you know?" The girl asked, tightening her grip on her boyfriend's arm. She looked really afraid. Her eyes, which had been a dark green, now swirled and became an opaque whitish-blue.

"You're a shifter?" Dean asked in disbelief. He had put his gun away, but he still kept his hand clutched on it just in case.

"You're the other one?" She asked in a hopeful tone, and she had a longing and sad look in her eye. Dean remembered when he'd encountered shape shifters before, they'd only become bad people because they felt like outcasts and freaks.

"No. But I want to help you. Please, I'm on your side." Dean said, taking his hand off the gun and showing his palms. The girl pressed her lips together and shrunk even closer to her boyfriend.

"How can we know we can trust you? You're clearly a hunter." She said, as her eyes darted down to the place where Dean had shot Darren. She gently placed her hand there, and the man only flinched a little bit. "You _did _just shoot him."

Even though her exterior body she was wearing now was pretty, Dean could tell there was something about her that was very unique. She didn't seem like any of the other shifters he'd ever met. She seemed like a genuinely good person.

"Why are you here? What did that paper tell you?" Dean said, deciding to take a leap of faith and ask about the paper.

The girl looked surprised. "I got it in the mail. It was from another shifter who said he was looking for others of his kind. Most other shifters have gone crazy from their anger and solitude, but he seemed...fine. He seemed like me. I just wanted to see... He really seemed so genuine."

She looked very dissapointed as she stared at the ground, digging the toe of her shoe into the ground. "I guess it was all a set up." She said under her breath.

"What do you mean 'like me'?" Dean asked her. She looked up at him, her large eyes filling with tears.

"I mean like me and Darren. We've been leading normal lives together for fifty years. Well, mostly normal. We'll sometimes use our abilities to help people. Other than that, we act just like regular people, except he's a phoenix and I'm a shifter. I can tell you've met others like us by the look on your face. I promise, we're good people," The girl said determinedly, her eyebrows tilting down.

Dean was bewildered. First of all, what kind of shifter actually used their abilities to _help _people? And secondly, fifty years? These two people couldn't have been older than their low to mid twenties!

"But, you-" He started saying. The girl still clung onto Darren's arm, looking intently at Dean.

"Most hunters don't like it when we tell them our story. So let me start off by saying this. There is always grey area between monster and man, but we're the good guys. Sometimes they're just scared and alone and mistreated. We try to help them, and if we can't we choose to help the humans."

"Do you mean...you guys are hunters too?"

The girl looked up at Darren for his answer. Darren hugged the girl closer, and he looked at Dean this time with weary eyes.

"I guess you could say that. Ariana is the only one I've found whose like me. I rescued Ariana many, many years ago. She's the only other good one I've found though, unfortunately." He said. Dean's mind was reeling. Monsters hunting other monsters? They were actually using their abilities to help people?

"You guys are badass," Dean said, not thinking before he said it.

"We try," The man laughed lightheartedly. He now didn't look mad at Dean at all, but his almond-shaped eyes were crinkled into little smiles. _These people are incredible. I mean, I_ did _just shoot him._

"Sorry about, you know." Dean said uncomfortably, motioning to his own stomach area.

"At least I'm not just human, or I'd be dead by now." He said, and just as easily as picking a flower, he plucked the bullet out and held it up to examine it as if it were a pretty little button instead of a lethal object.

"But what made you two become hunters? Why didn't you turn to the bad side like all the others?" The two shrugged. "We just both have really strong ideas of what's right and wrong, I guess." Ariana answered. "We like to help people."

Dean shook his head to himself in disbelief. "I hate to tell you this, but that letter you got was a huge trap. And I probably can't just let you leave, either. The man who sent you that has already killed three shifters so far, and I'm guessing he was going after you next."

"You want me to stay and act like I've fallen for it so that you can catch him," Ariana saw what he was trying to say, and she pressed her lips together.

"No, she will not-" Darren started, but Ariana quickly interrupted him. "Okay."

"You are not going to be used as bait for a hunter," Darren whispered to her, his deep brown eyes shining with concern.

"I _want _to do this," She insisted, her face showing her determination.

Dean looked to Darren for his consent. "Only if I'm nearby. I can't really _die, _so if anything goes wrong I'm going to be there." He said, lowering his hand to hold Ariana's.

Dean was still trying to wrap his head around the situation. The three started to walk back to the parking lot, the two still holding hands. Dean almost felt... inspired by these people. Two types of monsters who were usually crafty and undetected killers were together and perfectly happy.

"Here," Darren called to Dean, and he gave him Ariana's folded up letter. "Call us when you're there. Then she'll head in." The creases had been folded over so many times that they were soft to the touch. Dean could imagine her folding it over and over again, a hopeful expression on her face, and he almost felt bad it hadn't been real.

"Look," Darren said when Ariana was out of earshot. He leaned on the Impala. "You know that us phoenixes don't die or age. Ariana is the one. And I know there will be one day when she dies and I'll keep on living through the ashes. She's just not going out this way, alright?" Darren was surprisingly nice about it. Dean could see is his eyes that he really loved her.

"Of course." Dean answered.

"She's trying to make the world a better place. I think that's what we all want." Darren said, giving the car a little pat as he went to join Ariana again. Dean wished more monsters could be like them. It would make his life a hell of a lot easier.

Dean got into the Impala, started up the car and went to go back to the motel. Upon pulling up to the lot he knew something was wrong right away, and he felt his chest squeeze. The room that they'd been staying in had its door partly ripped off and leaning askew. Couch stuffing was rolling around outside, and broken glass littered the front mat. A torn piece of fabric fluttered in the wind.

Dean immediately shut off the car and sprinted up to the room. He looked inside and his heart dropped to his stomach as he saw the damage inside. It looked like a tornado had hit the room, everything was broken and bits of glass, fabric, tiles and chips of wood were everywhere.

"SAM? ADAM?" He yelled, stepping into the room with a glassy crunch.

He thought he heard something tumble in the bathroom. Dodging to avoid flipped over furniture, he yanked the bathroom door open.

Adam was alone, backed up against the tiled wall, hugging a bottle of Borax. The bathroom looked like just a huge pile of rubble. Adam looked hurt, with a few cuts here and there, and one big cut running horizontally along his cheek.

"Don't come any closer," Adam warned, backing up more into the wall. Dean took a step forward, and Adam quickly opened the cleaner with panicked movements and splashed some on Dean. Seeing nothing happen, he sighed in relief and started to stand up shakily.

"They took Sam," He said, looking almost through Dean. "I tried to fight back, but-"

"Did you do this?" Dean asked, looking at the damaged beyond repair bathroom.

"I...I dunno. I might have.." He replied, rubbing his cut and seeing the red on his hand.

"Don't touch it. We need to go find Sam." Dean's eyes narrowed in determination as he led his brother by gently placing his arm on his back and leading him out the door.

"Tell me everything that happened," Dean practically demanded, getting ready to start the car.

"Dean, stop!" Adam yelled when he saw Sam running towards them, waving his hands above his head. He came up to the car, breathing heavily. He touched Adam on the shoulder, glancing at him with a relieved look.

"I escaped, but I barely managed to. Bobby wasn't kidding when he said they were getting stronger. Look what they did to that room," Sam said, getting into the car.

"Adam told me he thought he did that," Dean answered. Was Sam okay?

"Well, why don't you ask him?" Sam asked. Dean glanced at him in the rear view mirror, but the kid was passed out.

"That's weird. Just a minute ago he was fine." Dean said, scratching his head.

"Huh. Maybe he just needed to rest."

Dean looked at Sam suspiciously. "How about you? Are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah. I'm fine," Sam wound up sounding a little too chipper. "I was able to cut the heads off before anything bad happened."

Dean looked at him again, raising an eyebrow. "Well, where are they?"

"I was a little too busy chasing you down," Sam joked, relaxing into the front seat. "So what happened at the bar?" He asked, rolling down the window.

Dean spent his time explaining to Sam and Adam about the Phoenix and shapeshifter, and passed him the invitation. Ariana was supposed to meet there in less than five minutes.

They pulled up just in time. Dean quickly cut the engine and grabbed his axe and bottle of Borax.

"Here," Dean said, handing Sam the axe. His coat sleeve brushed against Sam's forearm, and instantly there was a sizzling noise and a cloud of mustard-colored gas as the leftover borax on his sleeve came in contact with the Leviathan.

Dean ripped the axe away from him and swung it back.

"You cut my head off now and you're never getting information about your brother." The creature taunted, now changing shape into a sharp-faced, mean looking man, with sharp blue eyes, a pointy chin and cheekbones, and a creepy small-toothed smile. Dean splashed Borax on the man, who cried out in pain and clutched his face.

"Where is he?" Dean demanded. "And what have you done with Adam?"

"You know, changing up our diet has really brought things uphill for us. And you've brought me right not my next snack. Much obliged," The man said in a sneery voice.

He snapped his fingers and was suddenly a block away, Ariana (who had been in hiding) clutched deep in his arms. Ariana looked extremely started as she struggled and started to molt out of self-defense.

"We can do all kinds of tricks now." The Leviathan chuckled as he licked his lips. Dean started to sprint toward the Leviathan and the struggling woman, ready to swing his axe and cut off the Leviathan's head. He only gave Dean a derogatory look and , quick as lightning, he was farther away.

"Just what I needed, a juicy little shifter. And I see you're one of those souls with a spark, aren't you, doll? Well, I've heard that spark adds just that much more flavor-" The man had started to say, when Darren rammed into the Leviathan out of nowhere and got a tight grip on his arms, trying to pry Ariana out of them. The Leviathan's arms started to overflow with mustard-colored clouds, and the creature quickly let go of the girl quickly, letting out shrill shrieks. Darren didn't let go. Black ink-colored blood started flowing from the deep burns.

The Phoenix and the Leviathan started to fight intensely as both assumed their partly true forms, in which Dean only saw the shadows as he quickly rushed forward to help the mortified Ariana off the ground.

"He...he came out of nowhere," She said shakily, astonished. "I didn't know that was going to happen."

"Neither did I. They've gotten much stronger and much more dangerous." Just admitting this to himself, Dean felt his already twisted stomach give another squeeze.

"Get back to the car and wake up my brother. He can take you someplace safe," He ordered, squeezing her hand in thanks.

He quickly went to pay attention back into the fight, but shielded his eyes as he was temporarily blinded by a bright-white light emitting from what he assumed was Darren. He could feel the intense heat like a sunburn through his clothes. Finally he heard Darren's exhausted voice.

"You can look now," He said wearily. There was an almost-charred body lying on the ground next to Darren, but it was starting to heal already. Dean went over and delivered a blow with his axe to separate the head from the body, and grabbed the blackened skull. Darren was shaking and breathing heavily, both of his arms all the way up to the shoulder were an ashy gray with paper-thin flakes that had started to fall off, drifting like feathers to the ground. His fingers shook violently as he clenched and unclenched his fists, his whole hands still glowing a sunset orange.

"I'm sorry about the danger you were put in. They've never...moved like that before." Dean admitted, feeling very bad about the obvious bad shape Darren appeared to be in.

"If we're making the world a better place, I'm glad to help." Darren said almost slurringly, his eyelids starting to droop as he looked like he was about to pass out. Ariana, when she had seen the fight end, had rushed back and now was going up to help her boyfriend, letting him lean on her so he wouldn't fall over.

"I... I couldn't wake your brother," Ariana told Dean, looking frightened as she helped stabilize Darren.

"I can handle it," Dean said, but was uncertain what he could do for Adam when this Leviathan had caused him to pass out. He was already sickly... Dean felt the worry showing on his face, something that he rarely let happen.

"You two might want to stay on the down low for a while," Dean suggested. "Thank you for that," Ariana said graciously. Darren now had his eyes fully closed. Dean couldn't wait any longer. He jogged quickly to his car, his stomach squeezing in worry uncomfortably.

He ripped open the backseat door to his sleeping brother. When he took a little glance back, the two monsters had already vanished. He quickly felt for a pulse on his brother, and sighed in relief when he found one, and it was going strong.

"Adam. Adam, wake up." Dean said, pinching his cheeks and rolling his shoulders around. Adam's eyelashes barely fluttered, but Dean knew he'd be okay. "Addie. Please, I need your help. We need to find Sam."

Adam's eyes fluttered open, his clear caribbean-blue eyes looked glazed and out of focus, and he looked exhausted.

"What did he do to me?" He slurred, reaching up with a clumsy hand to touch his sliced cheek.

"Hey, now. Focus. Try to find Sam." Dean said, guiding his little brother's hand away from his face, but he felt very happy inside that his brother was okay.

"He's close. Back at the motel. In the basement." His hand went up to touch his face again. "Why do I have a booboo?" He asked, looking at the red on his fingers. Dean strapped him in the seat, to which Adam drowsily made no objection. He quickly jumped behind the wheel, squealing his tires as he raced back to the motel.

"Stay here," he told Adam when they arrived, and he was met with a close-eyed nod. Dean whipped his head around, and finally spotted what he was looking for. He sprinted to a side door marked with a B for basement. Dean jiggled the locked knob, and finally kicked down the door easily, as the wood had grown soft over all the years.

"SAM?" He boomed out. He heard small scuffles and he came inside, and saw his brother tied up with a strip of duct tape over his mouth. Dean poured the cleaning solution on him first, and seeing no reaction, quickly tore the tape off his mouth and started to untie him as he started talking quickly.

"When Bobby said they were getting stronger, he really meant it. The thing came out of nowhere, I think they can somehow teleport now. Adam put up quite a fight, but the thing got me and then went to join you. He told me that they can't be stopped anymore," Sam swallowed, and a rush of goosebumps came over him. "What if it's true?" He barely whispered.

"If it bleeds, you can kill it, Sammy. Come on, Adam's waiting in the car. If things are really that bad, we've gotta start training him before the big meeting."

Sam stumbled to the car and flopped into the passengers seat. "Let's get the hell out of dodge," he groaned.

"No argument there." Adam groaned from the back seat. "Is this what a hangover feels like?"

"Well, you're not allowed to know until you're twenty-one, _exactly_." Dean shot at him sarcastically, acting a lot like an over concerned dad. Adam rolled his eyes and smiled.

"Sure, Mr. Healthy Lifestyle."

"You're a little shit, you know that? " Dean threw back, laughing. Sam smiled to see them getting along, but he felt sick to his stomach when he realized how high the stakes had been raised if they wanted to defeat these monsters.


	5. The Brothers and The Blades

It had come too soon. The date they had all been dreading, the deadline that had been looming over their heads for a month now. The leaves had started to turn orange and fall off, and they crunched dryly underfoot each day that Adam went on long jogs with either Sam or Dean to improve his strength. His legs and lungs had screamed in the crisp, dry air as opaque clouds swirled out of his mouth in puffs as he tried to keep up with his older brothers, straining to run in jeans and bulky jackets.

This last month had been both physically and mentally exhausting for him, as he went through "Hunter Boot Camp." Each day he went on 3-mile long jogs through the woods early in the crisp morning, which was then followed up with target shooting and gun practice, which at first he had been pretty bad at but he got a bit better over time. Then came the mental challenge as Cas took over as mentor. That was one of Adam's least favorite parts of the day, because Cas seemed to be much more distant and demanding than either of his brothers, stretching him to the limits. He'd almost always have a throbbing headache right in the middle of his forehead when he'd take a much-needed break for a quick lunch. Then, finally things geared down before dinner when he learned sigils, symbols, summoning rituals, and other useful things. He liked that part of the day, when he'd just get to sit down with Bobby, occasionally one of his brothers would stop by to watch. He hated the feeling that all these creatures lurked out there right now, committing crimes, but he liked the little comfort that he got when he learned how to defeat them. He also liked how kind Bobby was, and how he looked at him sometimes, like he was proud of him.

That morning they'd loaded into the car, pretty much speechless to each other except for a few words exchanged here and there. They'd gone over the whole plan the night before, so there wasn't much to talk about. The three shared an unspoken feeling of unity as they sped down the road, mist curling around the dark pines and sliding wispily across the road in the early morning.

Adam was almost quaking as he and his brothers went silently down the road. No one spoke, and the radio wasn't even an option. They had planned to station Adam nearby to the meeting, hidden from view, as he spied in telepathically. There was no telling what could happen, and this made Adam even more nervous as he wrung his hands. The tips were numb from nervousness, the chilly air, or both. He moved his fingers around, trying to get a little more blood into them. He felt like the cold from the smooth leather seats was seeping into his skinny limbs, even through the many layers he donned.

Finally, the car stopped on a ghost-like street in an abandoned part of town. The blacktop was now a faded grayish color, with a few cracks here and there. They parked in front of a very unsuspicious brick building, which looked like it had been up for rent since forever. The rent sign was curling at the edges and sun bleached, and the vast empty inside was dirty and collecting dust. Adam felt another chill as a low hanging cloud of mist passed over him, rustling his blonde hair. He puffed a breath of air into his hands, which were beginning to get more feeling in them.

"This is a big security camera blind spot, and there's no way anyone can ever find you here." Dean spoke up, breaking the long silence on the way up.

Dean went up to the side of the building, and squinted his eyes to recognize a few bricks. He pulled on one side sharply, digging into the red brick with his fingernails, and there was something that popped out. He scrabbled a bit more to pull out the square that had been revealed, pulling the side of the building, which finally swung open like a door to reveal a small, concrete space inside, equipped with an ax, borax, a lighter, salt and water.

"Sorry about the size. It's all I could manage to do without having it be visible on the inside. At least you still didn't put much meat on those bones, huh?" Dean tried to comfort Adam with a little familiarity. He knew that this was one of the most unsuspecting spots of all time. There was no way they could find him here.

"Here. Just in case," Dean said, lowering his voice, slipping both the demon knife and the ghost knife into Adam's hand. He squeezed his brother's shoulder, and looked at him with a proud expression. Sam came up tackled him into a big brother hug.

"We'll be right there if anything goes wrong." Sam slid his cell phone into Adam's hands. Adam silently went up to the literal hole-in-the-wall, climbed in, and tucked his knees under him. He clutched items close to his chest and looked out with big, light blue eyes at his brothers, knowing that he could do it, but feeling scared anyway.

"You can do it, Adam." Dean said, reaching in and giving his shoulder a squeeze again as he looked in at his brother, who looked much more like a toddler than a seventeen-year-old boy.

"Listen, I knew we were rude to each other when we first met, but I'm telling you now Adam, you're no different than Sam to me. I would happily die for you," Dean said, his deep green eyes shining at how proud he was. Adam felt genuinely happy, better than he'd felt for a long time. And with that, the door was closed slowly, and Adam was met with a wall of blackness and quiet. He fidgeted in his curled up position, hugging his knees, and he ignored that nagging that the tight space and darkness felt an awful lot like the cage and he thought positively, that at least he could concentrate even better with no visual or auditory distractions.

He went to work right away. From all the training he'd gotten very good at this, and especially because they'd shown him earlier exactly where the meeting was going to be held. He narrowed down the many monsters in the warehouse down immediately to find Roman, surprising even himself at the accuracy at which he was able to do this. He felt himself just float at the top of the newly made memories, and immediately he was transported into another room, another place.

The first thing he noticed with the hunger. It absolutely filled his whole body, he just felt like opening his mouth and eating everything in sight. Not only was the hunger around his stomach area, but all around his body, straight down to the bone marrow. Next, he felt a great rush of frustration and anger as Dick looked around to everybody in the room.

They'd climbed up a staircase from a seemingly abandoned warehouse upstairs, into a beautifully modern, shiny white-walled complex with a few meeting rooms and even a lounge. This particular room had a glass table and colorful framed pictures on the walls. Dick looked around at the people in the room and utterly hated each and every one of them. Every mannerism that they made was mind-bogglingly annoying to him, each one of those human eyes looking up to him for guidance filled him with disgust. His hunger ached even more than usual. He wanted to eat somebody soon, or he'd really lose his mind.

"I know you're all wondering why you've come here," Dick started, trying as hard as possible to suppress his inner rage. It seemed to work well, as he sounded calm and collected. Adam felt physically sick just spying on these things. He hoped this meeting would be over quickly.

Adam felt Roman's hands like they were his as Dick grasped the handle of a suitcase, lifted and brought it onto the table. He felt the cold metal clasp as he unhook it, swung the suitcase around, and opened it for the crowd of fellow Leviathans to see. All of them got shocked looks on their faces.

"No," One of them said in disbelief. Dick felt another swell of rage at how irritating these damn people where. Couldn't they wipe those stupid shocked looks off their face? Dick took out a smooth, rectangular box from the suitcase and held it up, running his fingers down the cold, smooth wood sides which were deeply engraved with symbols. He closed the suitcase and put the knife on top of it, and he felt so empowered as he watched the other Leviathan's faces as he took the sides of the box and opened it much more slowly than he needed to.

"Most of you probably know what this is. And you probably didn't think it existed," Dick said to them, finally pulling the lid open all the way. Resting on deep red velvet was a hauntingly beautiful knife: it had a black-pearl colored grip, while the blade itself was a deep, shiny obsidian that curved just a bit at the end. When Adam observed closely, he saw microscopic flecks of blood red and reddish gold in the ink-black blade.

"The legend goes like this," Dick continued, pulling his arms behind his back and stalking around the room, feeling very satisfied at the power he felt over these people as he stood over them, as they looked up to him, enraptured in his story.

"When the four dominions were created, four brothers were each in charge of each place. There was Heaven, Purgatory, Earth, and Hell. Each brother was given a very special weapon that could kill anything from his dominion in order to keep control. There's Heaven's Blade, Hell's Dagger, Purgatory's Rapier, and Earth's Demise. Over the countless years that these weapons have been fought over, murdered for, exchanged hands, they've now all finally been brought to Earth."

Dick paused for effect and felt washed in power for each second that passed in suspense. He smiled inwardly and continued.

"It is said that alone, each of these weapons can only kill those from each dominion. But, when brought together, in which they were never meant to, they will form the ultimate weapon. This could kill absolutely anything ever known, including us. That is why this knife must be closely gaurded. And that is why our new top objective is to collect these four weapons. We already know where the second one is." He paused again.

"We know that the Winchesters possess Hell's Dagger. We must get it and bring it here, no matter the cost. If they try to fight back, kill them." He ended the sentence on a low note, just the hint of a growl in his voice. He practically slammed the wooden box shut with a wooden clap.

"No one must know where this weapon is. I am leaving it up to you to keep it safe." Dick said, reaching up and placing his hand on the nearest man. The man looked like he didn't know what to do with himself. Dick smiled inwardly. He loved power plays.

"And you two," He said, clapping two more people on the shoulders, "will be responsible for tracking down the Winchesters and getting that knife at all costs."

He stalked back to the front of the room. "I know you may think coming all the way out here just for a small bit of information is tedious-" Dick waited, and all the faces fell and shook their heads. "Oh, no, sir, of course not," they chimed silently.

"I didn't think so. This weapon is important, it could singlehandedly ruin all of our plans." Dick placed his hands on the table, scanning the table and looking into everyone's eyes, somewhat to intimidate but mainly to see who he wanted to curb his hunger.

"And you, little lady, please come with me." He beckoned a young, twenty-something looking woman.

"Meeting dismissed," Dick said, turning away from the staring eyes, and he jerked down the sides of his black suit. "I have a very special plan for you, miss." Dick said in a chilling voice.

Adam felt his face growing tight as blood drained from it. Observing in this much detail for this long was exhausting. He felt like his whole body was in a crampy, cold sweat.

Dick caught his reflection in one of the shiny, clean picture frames. He stopped and looked directly into his own narrowed, brown eyes.

"Oh, hello there, angel. How long where you listening in?" He addressed himself right in the eyes, and Adam felt his heart jump to his throat.

"I wonder who you are. I wonder who you're working for. I'd bet my money on those Winchesters," He said, lifting an eyebrow. Adam, panicking, tried to pull himself out of Roman's mind quickly, but his panic rose even higher as he realized that somehow, Dick was trapping him there.

Adam felt like he was ramming to try and get out, and with each shove he was loosing more and more energy.

"Oh, I am going to enjoy this. You won't feel the need to eat for weeks," Dick said in a cold voice, narrowing his eyes at himself.

"There's no way you can stop it this time, angel. Either way those stupid brothers are going to die, running away from us or trying to get us." Dick cooly played with the cuffs of his sleeves.

"Come here, dear." Dick beckoned to the woman he'd singled out from before. _I will find you, angel. And you will pay._

Adam felt his mouth rip open, stretching wide, as hunger erupted and reverberated from every aspect of his body, he felt an instinctual pull toward anything living in the room, and he felt the ecstasy of biting down on his first bite of the meal-

With one last determined pull, Adam ripped himself out of Dick's mind. In his panic, just like before, he felt a warm almost glow and spinning feeling as he heard deep rips, pops and cracks as a swirl of power spun around where he was, ripping apart the bricks, plaster and drywall. That was the last straw, he felt absolutely drained and ready to faint. He felt like the room was spinning, and he had no bearings on sight and he felt like he was falling. His body crumpled in on itself, his teeth painfully hitting the bones on his curled up knees. He didn't even have the strength to cough as he breathed in powdery drywall, floating in the air from the destruction he'd created. He was able to only muster the strength to press the call button on the cell phone that was slack in his hand before he closed his eyes and felt himself floating and spinning, not even able to move a muscle.

Adam didn't know how much time had passed before he vaguely recognized that the tiny door had been forced open, and that light was slightly glowing a rosy pink beyond his eyelids. His familiar brother's voices sounded faraway, like voices from a television in the other room. He felt himself being lifted as he couldn't move a muscle in his body.

"Do you think he's okay?" Dean said, grabbing the weapons that were slipping from Adam's limp hands and Sam shrugged him onto his back. A few bits of bricks tumbled out as they pulled him out of the misshapen hole, and fine white powder covered his face and was all in his blonde hair.

"I think he'll be fine. He's a brave, tough kid," Sam said with admiration, pulling his brother into a piggyback ride position. Adam's arm dangled down limply. He opened his eyes drowsily.

"Deh...Dee..." He barely whispered, battling to keep his eyes open.

"What is it?" Dean asked, coming up to him. "Adam, what is it?" Adam took all his strength just to lift his arms. He gently held the sides of Dean's head, and brought his forehead to his. He didn't know how he knew how to do it, but he just did. There was a dim white light glowing from where their foreheads touched as Adam's memories of the meeting poured into Dean's head. With that, Adam closed his eyes and rested his head on Sam's shoulder, looking peaceful and like a little kid being brought in late from the car.

"Damn!" Dean said, bending his back and clutching his forehead with one hand as he steadied himself on the car's bumper with the other. "Oh, wow."

Sam gently slipped Adam into the car, buckling his seatbelt with care.

"What's the matter?" Sam asked, getting into the car, the driver's seat.

"I... how does the kid do it?" Dean stumbled into the passenger's seat, had his hand over his eyes as he went to sit and pulled the door shut. "It's like he's reading, talking, and listening to someone at the same time. I have no idea how he can concentrate like that." Dean screwed up his face as he recalled everything he could about the meeting, but most of it was fuzzy, like remembering every detail about a dream.

"The main thing was about knives. He said that there were four from heaven, hell, purgatory and earth, and they could kill anything from those places, but when you brought them together it could kill anything and they could rule any place... they had the one from purgatory there at the meeting, that's all I can get out of this."

Dean and Sam's faces grew with realization. They both simultaneously looked at the knives that Dean had next to each other in sheaths at his side.

"Do you think..." Sam started, amazed. If there really was four, and they already had two of them...

"So we have the ones for Hell and Earth, right? With the ghost knife we got. If we get that one from purgatory, we can finally kill those Leviathans."

"But if all four are brought together, they could possibly rule all of earth, or maybe even all of well, _everything." _The brothers paused.

"I say we collect the three: Hell, Purgatory, and Earth. Then we destroy Heaven's, so that this super weapon can never be made. I think that's the best option, don't you?" Dean proposed.

"Who says we can even get the other two? I'm sure the Leviathans have the one weapon that can kill them locked under pretty damn tight security." Sam responded. Suddenly, the car filled again with a certain weight.

"Hello," Cas said calmly, looking intently at Adam. His face gave it all away, he looked genuinely concerned.

"Okay, what was that?" Dean asked, picking up on the look right away.

"It's Adam. He's entered the stage."

Dean slowed the car down, looking back and at Cas right in the eyes. "What are you talking about?" He said in a low voice, he felt very afraid at the tone his friend was using.

"We know how most everything in this universe works, with rises and falls. A few days ago, Adam had reached the peak of his performances, and he'd been the highest just now. And after a peak, there is always a valley. There may be a few spikes of power on the way down, but he's entering that stage now."

Dean pulled the car over, put it in park, and twisted around and looked at Cas right in the eye. Cas stared back and kept talking tenatively.

"It was in these valleys that...that most of their bodies shut down." Dean looked more angry than Sam or Cas had ever seen him.

"Does that mean he's going to die?" He managed to choke out, looking very upset. He couldn't loose Adam now, not again, not after everything...

Then, Cas vanished. Dean already knew the answer, fifty fifty. Dean and Sam both exchanged worried glances. They were both the big brothers now, and they couldn't afford to lose another member of their family, not the little blonde teenager they'd both grown to love.


	6. Fifty-Fifty

**Thank you again everyone for the reviews! They really keep me going and wanting to write more :)**

* * *

When they had brought Adam home after the big meeting, he'd slept for almost twenty-four hours straight. Sam had taken the time to clean him of the rubble and dust that he'd been coated in, and they tucked him into a little comfy bedroom this time, not the cold, drafty, and briny-smelling safe room. They left a dim yellow light glowing in the corner of the room and left the door open most of the time, as Dean, Sam and Bobby all had the tendency to walk by at any time of day and peek in just to make sure he was doing alright. He'd be the same every time: his blonde hair messy, his eyes had deep tired lines under them as they remained shut on a pale, sick-looking face. He donned a slight frown as he looked like a kid who was having a scary dream.

When he finally did wake up, he barely spoke except to ask for water in a raspy, hoarse voice. No one talked about the elephant in the room, if he was going to make it. Adam stayed in the exact same position for days, under the thick plaid comforter, the blankets pulled all the way up to his chin. He'd had full body shakes a few times, but that was it. Things had gone on the same way for days, him sleeping as the three peeked in at least twenty times a day.

One day, after a particularly harsh session of the shivers and shakes, Adam actually began to feel a little bit better. He felt a warmth crawl up from his belly into what had felt for the past couple of days like a hollow, cold shell of a body. The warmth began to fill him like hot soup in a bowl, and it wasn't until it felt like it was overflowing did Adam realize something was wrong. He opened his eyes just a slit to see the dim, comfy yellow light they'd set up for him flicker dramatically. He wasn't sure if it was in his head, or the room was shaking. He wasn't sure if he'd imagined the faraway shouts of alarm either.

Dean had been eating dinner and going over a few scribbles, diagrams and satellite pictures that Bobby had asked him to review. The light he was using to review the material suddenly started to flicker, and he looked up right as the ground started to shake. He immediately felt awake and on edge.

"Sam?" He shouted, putting down the paper he was holding. Sam rushed into the room, holding onto the doorframe for balance as the room began to shake even more violently. They looked at each other and knew right away they had to get to Adam.

"Adam!" Dean shouted, making his way down the shaky hallway.

"What's going on?" He heard Bobby yelling from somewhere else in the house. They both had just made it to the bedroom to see Adam disappear, the fluffy flannel blanket twisting away from the bed as even some of the wallpaper tore away as he left in a swirl of spinning air. The two put up their arms to shield their faces from the wall of air, and when they lowered them, they saw that he had vanished without a trace. Dean stared in shock. He'd barely been able to move or speak, and now this? "BOBBY!" He turned his head and bellowed behind him.

...

Dean was pacing up and down the length of the table, obviously nervous. Castiel sat at the dining table, looking very roughed up as he'd just returned from a nasty squabble up in heaven. Sam sat next to him and he was doing the questioning, because Dean was too upset.

"So you're saying he could be anywhere, anytime?" Sam asked, curling and uncurling his hands. "How did he do that? Just a few days ago he could barely move."

Cas exhaled and tried to explain. "If you think about it like a graph, he'd been going up and up for the past few months, until he'd finally reached his peak and begun a sharp decline. However, it isn't only a steady perfect decline. There are bumps and spikes on the way down, some spikes even reaching the peak level in sporatic burst. By your description, I believe he's time travelled. It's very rough and sloppy, just like when baby angels learn. But I'm sure he'd arrive there in one piece."

"So how are we supposed to find him?" Dean asked, finally stopping his pacing to stare at the two men at the table.

"I will find him and retrieve him. Just as a fair warning, he might be in an even worse state than before." Cas answered, quickly standing up. A second later, he was gone with a swift swoosh.

...

When Cas came back with Adam into Bobby's living room, reality came down fast on Adam and he bent over, and threw up all over the floor. There was just something about the air back here: It felt heavier, more tense, harder and filled with fear. He had no idea where or when he had gone, but the atmosphere there had been so soft and light, almost like a tangible amount of peace.

"Adam!" Sam rushed forward, catching his brother who had completely lost his balance. "Get him to lie down," Dean suggested quickly and they hoped up to help him to his bed.

Adam couldn't explain the change in atmosphere, but whereas previously he'd been able to hold himself together, now he felt like he could just sleep for years. He'd drifted off, and woke up to a gentle shake on his shoulder. Sam was sitting next to his bed, a bowl of tomato rice soup in his hands.

"You haven't eaten in days. Would you like some dinner? Dean said this soup always made me feel better when I was little," Sam urged, concern shining in his eyes. Adam propped himself up against the headboard and took the bowl with weak hands, placing it into his lap.

"Thank you," He said hoarsely. He didn't feel like eating, but he took a bite and gave a small smile just to make his brother happy. "Could you bring Cas in here?" He asked quietly.

"Sure. Eat up, Adam. Feel better, mkay?" He said, giving him a little pat on the shoulder. Cas soon came in, looking like he didn't want to have to do this.

"I know, I have some explaining to do." He said, wearily sitting on the chair next to Adam's bedside. And for the first time, Adam saw Cas being vulnerable as he brought his palms to his cheeks, and he stared down at the floor. " I regret deeply that this happened to you." He admitted, and Adam suddenly saw him as being the thousands and thousands of years old, as the buildup of unfortunate events showed on his face. "It is hard to remember something from so many years ago. But the blood was the only way to keep you even alive after that much time with my brothers."

"Why does everything feel so...different here?" Adam asked, trying to explain the shift in atmosphere he'd felt. He hadn't been in the future, or past, whatever it had been, for very long. He had only stayed there for a few minutes, but it was significantly different here.

"It's because in the future, something happens to the world that brings the world more peace. The closing of the gates of hell. You were almost one hundred years in the future." He avoided his eyes and spoke up again. "You cannot tell your brothers this information. Humans are not meant to know their fate."

"None of this makes any sense. What's going to happen to me?" Adam pleaded, setting the bowl of soup aside and snuggling down into his covers again.

"You will know soon. For now, rest." Cas said, and putting his hand on Adam's forehead, he fell into a deep sleep right away.

He kept on sleeping for days, and much like before the three men kept the light on and the door open in hope that he'd miraculously be fine one day, hop up and hit the road with them.

After about four days, Adam felt something strange and new, and he knew something was wrong. Something molten-hot, painful and bitter was rising in his chest. He tried to call out, but found his throat felt like it was closing up. He managed to let out a strangled yell, before he heard pounding footsteps in the hallway as he two brothers ran in to see what was the matter.

When they came to his bedside, he was reaching out in fearful movements, tightly gripping Dean's arm, not wanting him to leave his side. Dean quickly grabbed hold of his hand in between the two of his. Adam was letting out quick breaths and fearful whimpers, as he didn't want Dean to let go of his hand.

"I'm right here, Addie. I'm not going anywhere, I promise." Dean said, gripping Adam's hand in between two of his own. He brought his clasped hands to his lips as he observed Adam, shaking slightly himself at what he was seeing unfold in front of his eyes.

Adam was shaking violently, letting out fearful gasps, as a dim white light started to shine from deep within his pupils which was surfacing quickly, filling up his eyes with a white glow. With each gasp, a glowing white puff left his mouth as well, a shining white light was at the back of his throat.

"It's gonna be okay, It's okay," Dean said, his voice shaking involuntarily. Sam had a tight grip on Adam's upper arm, looking like he was trying to prevent him from leaving simply by holding on.

Adam struggled as light seemed to fill up his whole eyes and mouth. Dean couldn't watch anymore as he heard a loud boom and the hand inside his went suddenly slack. He squeezed his eyes shut, and felt tears slip underneath his eyelids, and he opened his eyes to see a tiny pair of black ash wings burned onto part of the bed, of wing going slightly up the walls, the other on the dresser. He looked at his brother, who looked almost like he was sleeping peacefully, his little face which had been tight with pain for a long time was finally relaxed and at peace.

"Dean," Sam said, and Dean turned away. "I know, Sam. He was our responsibility and now he's dead," He said, his voice cracking at the last word, as he stood clenching his fists as tears started to leak out of his eyes. He couldn't believe this had just happened. He buried his head into his hands and felt himself almost start to shake with sobs that felt like they were trying to escape his body from deep within his chest.

"No, Dean! Look!" Sam had a excited, hopeful tone to his voice. "He's breathing, look!" Dean scrambled to collect himself and felt for a pulse. The little heartbeat was strong as it tapped along Dean's fingers.

Dean looked up at Sam, astonished. The two clapped into a big hug right away. They hadn't admitted to each other, but they could both tell now; both of them had been scared out of their minds for Adam's safety.

Cas suddenly appeared behind them. "It was only the angel part of him that's died. He's a regular human being now, and I think he'll be okay." He explained.

Sam knelt down and pulled Adam into the very familiar position they'd spent so much time in in the Cage, with Adam folded into Sam's chest as Sam held his head and smoothed down his hair.

"You made it. You're okay," He said that last part in a watery voice, squeezing his eyes shut and hugging Adam's head to his chest. Adam took in a deep breath and opened his eyes.

"Fifty fifty, huh? Well, I guess luck is on our side for once." Dean admitted, he couldn't contain his big smile that crinkled the little crows feet at the sides of his eyes as he went to hug his two little brothers. It was pretty amazing that his whole family could pretty much fit within his arms. He felt a rush of protectiveness. These two boys where the only family he had left. He wouldn't let anything happen to them, no matter what.


	7. The Forest of Erised

**Thank you so much everybody for your likes and reviews! They make me so happy and they make me want to continue my story :) I have a very active imagination and my personal goal is to make this story as long as possible, If you'd like me to keep going, please keep reviewing! I love every single one! **

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The air around the house had become especially tense as the three boys had been thinking about getting the Purgatory weapon for days on end, trying to research, getting nowhere, and finally scrapping it. They were tired and grumpy, and the three brothers sometimes broke into fierce squabbles over insignificant things that quickly burnt out. Adam especially felt unlike himself, as he felt like a piece of him was missing ever since that day his angel half had died. He felt a hollowness he couldn't explain, which led him to be agitated even more easily than usual.

"You all need to get out of the house and do something productive," Bobby grumbled at them one day. If he had to be holed up one more day with these boys he might just go insane. "Come 'ere," He said, spreading out a newspaper clipping he'd been saving.

The three brothers came up to the dining room table and looked at Bobby was trying to show all of them. "This is just what you boys need, a good ol' fashion hunt." The three craned to look, all in such a similar way that Bobby had to suppress a guffaw. The newspaper article reported the mysterious case of the disappearance of at least twenty or more people in a very specific forest. There wasn't much more information than that.

"So, what do we think it is?" Dean asked, tipping back a beer and reclining on the couch.

"I'm not like anything I've ever seen before. I'm guessing this...whatever it is, is somehow attracting the people to it's forest and keeping them there. I need you three to investigate, and call me if you get any additional information, then maybe I'll be able to narrow the margins down. Sound good?"

"Yeah...?" Dean said half-heartedly, but he was only joking.

"If you boys don't get out of my house you'll face my wrath! Now, c'mon, git you little idgits!" He exclaimed in one of his rare outbursts of humor.

"Okay, okay!" Adam laughed, picking up his heavy jacket that was hung by the door.

"Well be in touch, kay Bobby?" Sam called on the way out, closing the door behind him. Bobby sighed and finally could rest in some peace and quiet, he seemed to melt into his armchair. Suddenly, a phone rang from within the house. Bobby grumbled and got up and swiftly picked up the phone.

"Hello?" He answered gruffly.

"Do you miss us already?" Dean's voice came through the other end.

"Oh, fuck you very much Dean." Bobby replied, but he was laughing, and he heard the faint raspy laughing on the other end as he went to slam down the receiver. These boys would be the death of him.

The Impala rumbled to a stop infront of a completely random forest on a seemingly deserted, quiet road. Mist draped itself along the dark tree leaves, giving the forest an ominous and eerie feeling.

"Are you sure this is it? It doesn't seem like anything is even here," Sam said, checking back down to the GPS and checking the address printed in the article. "This whole thing isn't making any sense."

"You can say that again. Come on, let's head in." Dean said, grabbing a flashlight (as the low hanging fog had made it quite gloomy), his gun, and patted his side to make sure the two Weapons were still there. The three exchanged confused glances before heading in.

Their shoes crunched on the gravel as they slid down a ditch off the side of the road to enter the forest.

"Erised Town Forest- No Entry, Crime Scene" A wooden sign was hammered into a wood post nearby, the "Erised Town Forest" part looking like it had been there forever as a place marker, while someone had added the hasty "No Entry, Crime Scene" below it on laminated cardstock paper.

"Well, you know what that means. We have to go in," Dean joked, as they all three lined up at the forest's edge and peered in. The trees where thick here, and the fog was even thicker, making the dark, straight trunks seem like they just dissolved into a white-grey nothingness. No one said anything to each other as they made their first steps into the forest.

"Stick together, everyone. We don't know what we're even looking for, so be extra careful." Dean instructed his two little brothers, taking the lead with a tight grip on both his flashlight and his gun. The mist crept in like tendrils and Adam shook despite the many layers he was wearing. He wished he wasn't such a skinny-bones. Out of the corner of his eyes he could have sworn that he saw someone swiftly stride by. He whipped his head around but didn't see anything but the same scenery of dark tree trunks emerging from an expanse of white.

"Guys, I think I just saw something." Adam said, his voice trembling a bit from the cold and a bit from fear. His older brothers stood still and darted their eyes all around. "What was it?" Dean barked.

"I...I think it was..." Suddenly Adam was slammed down, and his instincts immediately kicked in. He fought back as hard as he could against his attacker, punching, kicking, biting. He finally realized that the thing was gone, and his eyes sprung open. He sprung up, breathing heavy, his sudden movement causing the displacement of wisps of mist, looking around for his attacker. Where were Sam and Dean? He was all alone in the middle of the forest, and his brothers were nowhere in sight. He clenched his fists and spun around, looking for any signs of movement at all. There was nothing but silence.

"Sam? Dean?" He called out to the trees, and his voice was swallowed up by the air thick with moisture and it sounded oddly two-dimensional. Thinking he saw another figure, he broke into a sprint, in any direction, hoping it was a direction that would get him away from whatever was following him and hopefully would get him closer to his brothers.

Suddenly, he breathed in the overwhelming smell of cooking bacon. He breathed it in with relief. Maybe there was a house somewhere here that he could find shelter? He breathed the bacon smell deeply and tried to head off in that direction.

He started to see something fuzzy and colorful through the mist, and he took a few steps forward. The smell got even stronger, and Adam could almost hear the din of forks clinking on plates, people talking, the sound of sizzling breakfast, sink faucets getting turned on and off. He walked even closer to the faded image, and suddenly the mist fell away to reveal a perfect cross-section of a kitchen, randomly right in the middle of a forest. The people in it where just milling around, as if he were spying in on someone's breakfast routine.

Adam took a step closer, and almost fell to his knees. He _knew _the people in there. In fact...

The kitchen looked exactly like his old house, he one he'd lived in with his mom. He heard the faint din of a static radio as a rock song played lightly in the background. There was his mom Kate, looking about ten years younger than remembered her, her hair done up loosely in a ponytail as bright blonde curls fell down effortlessly on her face as she bobbed her head slightly to the music. She was the one at the stove, cooking the sizzling bacon as she wore a bright yellow apron over her pajamas.

He saw the backside of someone who looked familiar as well... he turned around and Adam recognized his dad John, looking ten years younger as well. He was smiling and humming as he carried two tin lunchboxes, swinging around and giving them to the young outstretched arms of two of the three boys who had popped up from behind the wooden kitchen island...

This time Adam _did _fall to his knees. The kids he saw were younger versions of him and his brothers, and the baby Adam had to be just about a year old, with big blue eyes and a head of fluffy white-blonde hair, as he smiled and chewed on his chubby fist . Sam looked around six, and was smiling brightly as he took his lunchbox from his dad and stroked the raised superhero on the front. Dean should have been around eleven, and he took his lunchbox and shoved it in his backpack as he chewed on a few strips of bacon.

"Do well on your test today, Dean." His mom Kate called as she waved at the two older brothers, who swung their backpacks on their shoulders to head out the door and go to school, following John like two little ducklings. 'I will,' he called back softly as he went out the door. Adam felt a pang of sadness swell in his chest just hearing his mother's voice again. He was thinking he had forgotten it after all those long, time-warped years in the cage.

"Drive safe!"She called out to John as she blew him a kiss, and he caught it with his big, callused hand and pretended to press it to his cheek. Adam toddled up to his mom and grabbed her legs, looking up at her with his curious blue eyes.

"You'll get to go to school just like them one day, Addie. Don't you worry," Kate knelt down and patted baby Adam on the back, then scooping him up and bobbing him up and down gently in her arms.

_It's not real, it's a trap,_ a little voice in his head seemed to remind him. But he didn't want to leave the scene, or even tear his eyes away. His chest ached with longing for this to be real. Adam forced his eyes away, using all the self-control he had. The smell and sizzle of bacon disappeared, and the din of the radio was silenced. Adam raised his eyes again to see the scene had changed.

Now, he was in his old room, this time it had two beds pressed on two sides of the room with a baby crib at the end wall. Sam was fast asleep in one of them, his six-year-old face looking peaceful as his mouth hung ever so slightly open and one hand peeked out from the covers, palm up and curled slightly.

Dean was in the other bed, wearing his pajamas, as baby Adam (wearing a powder-blue onesie) reached his arms over his head and grunted "up"! Dean lifted the little baby with caution to rest on his lap as he read a book for homework and bobbed the baby on his knee. It was so simple, peaceful and sweet. It was nothing like a life Adam had ever known.

Adam didn't realize he was crying until a breeze pointed out the chilly tear streaks on has face. "It's not real!" He said aloud, almost screaming it. There was no reaction from the people in front of him.

Adam tore his eyes away again, and he forced his body to follow. All noise died out this time, and looking behind him he saw the illusion had disappeared. Standing up shakily, he let the determination to find his brothers drive him.

"Dean? Sam?" He cried out, heading in any random direction. He craned all of his senses to pick up on something other than the deafening silence, and heard the eerie tones of a music box coming from not too far away. Getting the chills from the hollow notes but deciding to follow them anyway, he stumbled upon an old man watching a mirage of his own.

"Hello? Sir, are you alright?" Adam asked tentatively, coming up to inspect the man. He looked glassy-eyed and dehydrated, his lips were chapped badly and his eyes were bloodshot and they looked moisture less. He was mumbling something to himself, something about his daughter. How long has he been here, watching this scene of him in a pink room with his daughter as the faint music from a toy box spilled into the air?

Suddenly, Adam heard leaves crunching violently and branches snapping from somewhere to the old man's left. Startled, Adam immediately jumped to his feet, adrenaline coursing though his body. The sounds were coming closer, and it sounded like the rhythmic drumming of legs as a bunch of people ran through the forest toward them. Adam's heart jumped to his throat as the creature emerged from the mist: Its dark, full body obscured for just a second before it was in full view. Adam turned on his heel and ran as fast as he could in the other direction, putting all thoughts of helping the man from his mind. He had seen enough: The creature had been a huge, car-sized spider, hairy and dark black with spindly, strong legs. It had charged out of the gloom and captured the unresponsive old man easily...

Adam put his hands up to block the whipping low-hanging branches as they cut into his arms and hands like blades. With adrenaline pumping through his system, he ran blindly, anywhere but there, and he ran into something big and squishy. Panicking, he tried to fight back, and it took a few times of hearing his name before he registered that he had ran into Sam, and that Sam was only trying to calm him down.

"Adam, Adam. Shhhh. What happened?" He asked, and Adam was shaking violently from head to toe. Adam just couldn't find the words to say. He was sobbing freely now, and Sam put a hand on the back of his head and brought it into his chest for a calming embrace. "Hey. It's okay. We just need to find Dean,"

"I...I saw my mom." Adam managed to choke out, for some reason that was the first thing he mentioned instead of the creature and the horrific scene he'd witnessed. Only when Adam observed closely did he notice tear tracks on Sam's cheeks as well. A few moments passed, Sam still didn't tell what he had seen. Adam thought he heard something from close by, faint music, and looked up at Sam, who seemed to be lost in thought. Adam went slowly toward the sound of the music, hoping that they had found Dean, and not another person trapped in their personal illusion.

Adam's feet crunched loudly on the dead leaves and gravel underfoot, and he passed through a few trees before he saw a scene that was enough to break his own heart. His older brother had a similar scene to what Adam had witnessed, a cross-section of a room dropped in the middle of the forest like some strange movie set. Inside the bedroom was a happier-looking Dean, sitting on one of the beds as multiple children (it was clear that they were his own, they all had relatable features) as he animatedly read them a bedtime story, smiling and acting out the scenes dramatically, making sound effects and large hand gestures. The kids giggled and snuggled up to him, all of them in comfortable pajamas. He roared dramatically and tickled one of his sons, and then his littlest daughter, both giggled like crazy and jumped around excitedly, pouncing like puppies on his chest and legs. Looking farther into the room, there was a door that lead to the living room, and Adam could catch the tiniest of glimpse of an elderly couple conversing by the fire, and it was clear right away it was older versions of Kate and John.

Adam looked down to the real Dean. He could hear the softest of sobs, he almost couldn't mentally associate that they were coming from his brother. Strong, protective and brave Dean, broken down like this? There was no way it was him there, balled on the forest floor. He was crumpled down on the ground, lying with his knees tucked underneath him in a fetal position, as his hands gripped tightly into the hair on his head as he stayed there motionless, sobbing. Adam was sure he'd heard him and Sam coming from all the noise they were making, but he wasn't able to acknowledge that they were there, to stand up and pretend like everything was okay.

"Dean," Sam said, coming up to his brother and lying a soothing hand on his curved back. There was no response from him. Adam had made his way over too, and it didn't resonate well with him that he was witnessing this very private moment of vunerability. Adam heard the tell-tale pounding as the arachnid was making its rounds. Without a second thought, Adam reached over unsheathed the Earth blade, feeling braver with its heavy weight in his palm.

"Adam, watch out!" Sam snapped, and Adam spun around, gripping the knife tightly. The spider had slammed into him, and he recognized the force that had separated him from before. He rolled a few times, and he felt a sharp pain as the spider bit into his lower leg. He cried out in pain and was able to quickly roll just a few feet away. Pinned down underneath the coarse, black hairy chest, he felt panic rising as without a second thought, he stabbed as deep as he could into the insect's body with a fearful gasp.

Unlike the Demon knife which gave the illusion of an electrified skeleton, there was an illusion of a great deluge of water from the massive body, but as Adam braced himself to be drenched he felt nothing. It was like the popping of a massive water balloon as the water fell and spread onto the floor, to quickly disappear. The bedroom scene quickly disappeared into mist, and the forest was engulfed in silence.

Adam stared up at the body that was crushing him, his blue eyes wide open as thick black blood slid over the knife handle and into his clenched palm. He was even more surprised as it was Dean who flipped the spider off of him. He knelt down to examine his leg closely. There was no signs that the spider had been poisonous, and as Dean rolled up the jeans he sighed with relief to see the quick nip hadn't broken the skin but merely crushed it, leaving already dark bruises on the two sides of his leg. Silently, Dean stood up straight and extended a firm hand to help Adam up. Adam clapped his hand gratefully into it and stood up shakily. His brother only looked at him, and Adam understood right away without the need to read thoughts. Dean had let the guard that he so carefully kept up at all times come down, and Adam had seen the toll that life had had on Dean. Sam still hadn't even given a hint to what he had seen.

The walk back to the car had been silent, as Sam carried Adam like he weighed nothing in a loose piggy-back ride. Adam would have been able to walk fine with a bit of discomfort, but Sam had insisted. Dean stoically walked beside them, still clutching his gun tightly. The forest was already starting to clear of the mist, and a tiny bit of sunlight could even be seen from the tops of the trees as it began to clear out. Even the car ride back was very quiet.

"You're lucky you had that knife. These sons of bitches are hard to kill," Bobby explained to them later that night, as the three of them gathered in the living room, Sam and Adam sharing the long couch as they sunk into it in exhaustion, and Dean still kept to himself as he sunk into a single armchair.

"I'm surprised these things are still around anymore. They were sorta public enemy number one back in the day. Recognize this?" Bobby asked as he held up a sketch of something that looked roughly like a dreamcatcher. "It's the only sigil that will ward them off. They go by many names, but the most recent title is dream weavers. They'll take up a piece of land, and when people wander into it they'll never leave once they see a mirage of their deepest desire, kind of like how a spider will leave a fly in it's web for days until it gets hungry."

Bobby looked at all of them with knowing blue eyes, prompting them to share what they had seen. Sam clenched his jaw and purposely looked away.

"I saw my mom and dad again. They got married and I was a baby growing up with Sam and Dean," Adam recalled, feeling an ache just saying the words aloud. He wished he could have stayed just a little longer, watching... he snapped out of it quickly. There was no use thinking about it anymore. But that could really have been the last time he'd hear his mother's voice.

"Was it difficult to turn away?" Bobby asked as he was jotting things down, collecting more field notes on the creature. Adam only nodded, pressing his lips together.

"I saw a family reunion at Christmas time. Everyone was there, mom, dad, you, Sam and Adam, all the little kids..." Dean spoke up unexpectedly. "I didn't want to leave it. I knew it could never happen, and that's why I wanted to stay so badly." Dean looked like he'd worn himself completely out emotionally. Sam made no attempt to reveal his deepest desire.

The boys had turned in very early that night. Bobby was glad they were finally getting rest, after their sleepless nights of worrying and trying to plan. When they were all asleep, Bobby went to work on making a summoning mixture.

He lit a match and let it fall into the bowl, which flared up and lit the room completely for a split second. The before him was a familiar, smiling face.

"I knew you missed me," He joked with a cocky grin.

"Missed you, my ass. What we need is a plan."


	8. Dude, Where's My Car?

**Hello everyone! Thank you for reviewing and favoriting once again :) ! I am going to be making my chapters a little shorter from now on, and this chapter is a bit more lighthearted from the sad one earlier! Enjoy! **

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Sam woke up early that morning for some reason or another. Even when he had closed his eyes, he couldn't fall back asleep. He sighed and got up, deciding to maybe drive out and pick up some hot breakfasts for Bobby, Adam and Dean. They deserved to have something nice after such a draining hunt.

Sam fished the keys to the Impala out of Dean's jacket pocket, which was draped across a chair in the living room. He unlocked the door and looked out, expecting to see the slick black car right in the place they had parked it upon returning, but instead found something else in its place.

Paying no matter to how early it was, Sam held the door open and yelled over his shoulder loudly, "DEAN!"

"What?" Dean said grumpily, walking drowsily to the front door. He tried to quickly smooth down his messy hair as he looked out to where Sam was motioning with his arm. "Dude, where's my car?"

Instead of the familiar black car, there was a sleeping figure in its place, a person curled up in a little ball. "Oi!" Dean shouted angrily at the person, stalking out to him with angry, quick strides. He knelt down and roughly shook the person's shoulder.

"Who are you, and where's my car?" Dean asked, and the person turned his head slightly to look at Dean with sleep-pinched eyes. The man looked to be in his mid-twenties, and he was wearing a shiny, crisp-looking leather jacket and black denim jeans. He had jet-black hair and pale blue eyes, and he was wearing a confused and disoriented expression.

"Huh?" He asked in a deep, rumbly voice as he reached a hand up to shield his eyes from the bright early morning sunlight.

"Where. Is. The. Car." Dean asked, and he pulled out his gun and cocked it, standing and straightening up.

"Hey. Stop." The man said, reorienting and standing up swiftly and holding his hands up innocently. Dean looked angry as he aimed the gun straight between the man's eyes.

"Go ahead and shoot. It would probably hurt less than being T-boned at full speed by a semi-truck. Or maybe beaten with a golf club. Or maybe, Oh! I know! Flipped over by a swarm of angry, bat-out-of-hell demons, what do you think?" The man asked with a sarcastic lift of a dark eyebrow. There was a tiny pause as Dean stared down this stranger with intense green eyes.

"I am your car, Dean." The man said calmly, tucking his hands into his leather jacket pockets casually.

Dean laughed in disbelief. "No, no. Baby's obviously a girl, and you're well... you're not a girl."

The man lifted his hands in a apologetic shrug. "One moment I was just here minding my own business, and the next -boom- I'm on the ground with some bastard laughing his ass off."

Sam got a look of realization come across his face. "Was this man about yay high, greenish brown eyes, slicked back brown hair...?"

The Impala nodded. "I hear a snap and next thing I know, I'm...well, I'm this." He said, motioning down at his body.

"Well, well, well..." Suddenly, Gabriel appeared out of nowhere, swaggering with his recognizable gait, wearing a great big smirk as his eyes twinkled mischievously.

The two weren't sure if they should be happy or angry. They'd both been pretty dismayed when the angel had "died", right after coming to their side to help.

"You're alive?" Sam blurted out, astonished.

"Did you really think it would be that easy? Plus, I'm Grade A at hiding from my family, if you didn't know that already." He tucked his hands into his pockets, still smirking at them. "I was living in TVland for a while, did a few Pepsi Max commercials, went on the down low. Oh yeah, that last video you saw of me? That was live," He said as he pointed at Sam with two hands, and winked cheekily while staring directly into his eyes.

"Oh...Oh god." Sam said, blinking deeply a few times and bringing his hands up to rub his eyes. "Oh, gross." He looked like he was trying to blink the memory out of his brain.

"So, what the hell's all this about, Gabe?" Dean asked angrily, motioning to the Impala. The dark-haired human narrowed his eyes under their heavy black eyebrows, bringing his lips together in annoyance.

"Dean, Dean. You should know me and my ways by now. I do things for you to teach you a lesson. I work in _mysterious_ ways," He joked, waggling his fingers for effect on the word 'mysterious'.

"I'll give you a little hint this time. I don't want you boys going anywhere while I'm off helping your sorry asses again. I hope not having a car and having _this_ will keep you three put," He said, pointing to the Impala.

_"_Why did you make her into _this_, though?" Dean asked, somewhat rudely gesturing to the car again. Baby patted looked down and patted his chest and stomach, wondering what was wrong with him, and he looked up with a slightly sad expression.

"Oh, I could make your car look like anything I want, Dean." Gabriel explained, and lifting his hand to snap, he snapped a few times in succession and the man started to rapidly change figures with each snap, but each one still had the signature leather jacket, black denim, dark hair and grey-blue eyes. There was a tall, lanky, skinny teen, then a short and tiny little girl of ten with long hair, an older woman with streaks of silver in her black hair, then a middle-aged man, then a beautiful young woman with a determined face and short black hair, until he finally returned to his regular state. During all this, Baby had been walking closer and closer to the smirking angel.

Finally turning into himself again, Baby punched Gabriel right in the face. Not expecting it, Gabriel looked somewhat shocked with his big, hazel-green eyes and brought his hand to his face.

"Stop messing with me," The Impala grumbled in his low voice, massaging his fist. Gabriel laughed and threw his arm over the man's shoulder, which caught him by surprise.

"You're just like I thought you'd be." He said, but for once he didn't say this in a malicious manner. "To answer your question Dean, to be honest I just thought I'd get a laugh out of you calling a man 'Baby'." Gabe's greenish eyes seemed to shine even more keenly.

The car shoved the angel off of him and brushed off his shoulder, frowning slightly.

"That's not funny, Gabriel." He grumbled, looking down at the ground, slightly embarrassed.

He was a car who was over fifty years wise and had been through _a lot _of shit, and he didn't want to be humiliated like that. But in truth, he couldn't think of his name being anything other than Baby. And if Dean embarrassed himself calling him that, Baby would feel even worse about the situation. He felt like he was part Sam and Dean's family, almost like some sort of ageless grandparent, since he'd watched over their dad as well. He'd watched them grow up, he'd been their guardian, their home, and their chauffeur. He knew the two of them the same or better than they knew themselves. He'd even been the first car Adam had driven, who he felt he'd recently brought under his wing and into his world as well. The fact he might cause them embarrassment made him feel very sad and somewhat empty. _Damn emotions. It was so much easier being a car._

"But why are you coming back now? Why didn't you disappear for hundreds of years like you had before?" Sam asked Gabriel, feeling like something about this situation wasn't right.

"Because I asked for his help," Bobby answered instead, his voice coming from behind the boys. He was standing in the doorway, looking grumpy and tired with his fist tightly holding a mug of steaming black coffee. Adam was standing there too, and had the distinctive sour look of an ill-slept teenager,with his hair sticking up everywhere as he peered out with squinty eyes. He shivered slightly as he stood there as his skinny legs peeked out from boxers.

Bobby started outside to talk to the boys, and tried to look confident but Dean and Sam could tell he felt somewhat guilty.

"And you didn't even think to tell us?" Dean asked, looking almost offended as he raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"I am trying to solve this problem, boy. I think I can make a few decisions." Bobby answered, frowning. "And who the hell is this kid?" Bobby asked, motioning toward Baby.

"It's...it's my car." Dean admitted, turning away, embarrassed. Baby pressed his lips together, taking the gesture straight to the heart.

"You're Baby?" Bobby asked in disbelief, staring at the somewhat tall, long-legged man in his twenties with a kind-looking face.

"I guess you can call me Kaz." Baby quickly interjected, using the first three letters of his license plate. Still, the name felt strange coming out of his mouth. He didn't feel like a Kaz, he felt like a Baby. Still, he was willing to try and get rid of the discomfort his real name was causing his boys.

"No, I insist. Call 'im Baby! Now, if you two don't mind, I'm off to see the wizard." Gabriel commented finally, looking like he was ready to get going. Baby cocked his head to the side.

"Wow. I spent a lot of time in TVland." Then, without warning, Gabriel had vanished without a trace.

"Is there anything ELSE you'd like to tell us, Bobby?" Dean asked in an accusatory tone, looking at Baby with a sidelong glance like he was a burden. _How can we possibly go anywhere now?_

Baby saw his frustration, but instead of feeling sad, this time he felt a bit angry. After all he'd done for them, and all the admiration Dean had for him had suddenly vanished just because Gabriel had chosen to portray him as a boy? He scowled back at Dean.

"Yeah," Bobby admitted, looking down at his feet and shuffling them. "I asked a lot of people to help, but only a few agreed. We got Gabe, and well... we got Crowley."

"Crowley? _Crowley_?" Dean asked in disbelief. "You didn't..._trade_..."

"Of course not, ya idjit!" Bobby scoffed quickly. "He's got a bone to pick with Roman. He thinks it's only fair that Purgatory's blade gets into a Hunter's hands as well, after all the losses he's suffered with the demon knife. Plus, he pretty much hates Dick's guts."

"So how the hell's that gonna work out with Gabriel? Or with us?" Sam asked.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Our common goal is all that matters right now. Apparently, Gabe's gonna go and scout out the area and figure out a plan."

"He doesn't want us getting in the way, that's why he turned Baby into a person." Dean explained.

"Is that who you are?" Adam piped up, he'd walked out to meet them, hugging his arms as he picked along the ground gingerly in bare feet over gravel.

"You can call me Kaz if you want," Baby said again.

"You don't look like a Kaz to me. Are you really the car?" Adam asked, looking skeptical.

"When John was first teaching you to drive, you almost drove me into a fire hydrant and before that you didn't know how to reverse so I went over the curb," Baby smiled, remembering the first time he'd met Adam. Adam smiled back.

"I remember that! I can't believe I did that," Adam said, smiling at the memory.

"Okay, well this has been great, but we need to get into town and get Adam that anti-possession tattoo we scheduled for today. Dammit! Why'd Gabe have to do this today? Sam, Adam, Baby, let's go into town. Come on," He said, heading back toward the house to get the keys to Bobby's truck.

"You know we can just go another time, Dean." Sam tried to find a quick resolution to Dean's growing frustration.

"He's not getting the better of us, Sam. We're going into town today whether he lets us or not," He said, holding up the truck's keys in the doorway. Sam sighed and eyed Adam, who just shrugged in response. Dean _would_ insist to go into town just because Gabriel was trying to stop them.

All four men squeezed into the front bench seat, and Baby looked extremely uncomfortable. "I never thought I'd be inside another car," he said, tugging at the collar of his shirt nervously.

Dean slid the keys in and tried to start up the car, but it only coughed a with few weak little sounds and it died down again.

"Dammit!" Dean exclaimed, trying to twist the keys again but to no avail.

"It's not that easy to outsmart Gabe, Dean." Sam assured him. "I guess we'll walk or something," He tried to present a quick solution, as the four of them dejectedly unloaded from the car.

"I guess we just don't have an option," Dean replied with a quick glance at Baby.

"You know what Dean, I'm not going to take any of your bullshit." Baby confronted Dean right away, striding up to him and pointing a finger at his chest. He definitely wasn't the type of car to take shit from anyone, and he was going to speak his mind.

"I watched your dad grow up. I watched you and Sam grow up. I've been through a lot of pain because of you two, things a normal car would never have to. And do I regret any of it? Absolutely not. It's because I love you guys, you're my family. But after all those times I've been there for you, everything I've seen you go through... I deserve your respect. If you don't love me anymore because some asshole angel put me in this body..." the distraught Baby had to pause. He knew about emotions from all the conversations he'd listened to, but it was much different experiencing them for himself.

"I'm still the same car, okay? I don't want things to change." Baby pulled down a corner of his leather jacket to show a few scars on his collarbone, the roughly scratched initials D.W. and S.W.

Dean looked at the car, a slightly shocked look on his face, looking like it finally hit him that this was really Baby. Dean extended a hand to shake, thinking; _I'm really about to shake hands with my car. _He almost laughed despite the situation they were in. Baby took the hand, but instead pulled Dean into a rough hug. Dean couldn't help but notice the man smelled like leather seats and diesel fuel. He smiled inwardly as he felt like he was finally meeting someone he'd actually known for a long time.

...

"I'm _bored," _Adam expressed as he reclined on the couch, as he forced himself to read another bone-dry facts and figures book.

"We're just going to wait until Gabe gets back, Adam. Then Baby will be back to normal and we can finally go an gank these sons of bitches once and for all," Dean replied, as he and Sam had a massive printed satellite view of the area where the Leviathans were rolled out on the table. They had placed miscellaneous objects spread out in certain areas, and Adam couldn't understand what any of them meant: there was a salt shaker, a flashlight, a box of matches, a short kitchen knife that had been jabbed into the table, and more. Right now Sam was examining the map and the object from eye-level with the table, making notes on a notepad he had.

"Do you even have any idea what you're doing?" Adam retorted (the kid couldn't refrain from being an annoying teenage brother _all _the time), fiddling with the corners of his flannel. Dean stuck his tongue out at him and turned his attention to look at the model along with Sam, smiling slightly.

Baby sat next to him on the couch, looking pensive. Adam wasn't sure why, but he already really liked Baby and sort of looked up to him. He was everything he thought the car might be if it had come to life: He was tough-looking, with his all black getup, windy black hair and wise-looking grey blue eyes. He had a strong character, but could be extremely caring at the same time. Adam could tell by the way that Baby looked at him, Dean and Sam that he felt like he was part of their family, like he knew them as well as themselves, but it was obvious he didn't know what to say to them. Adam knew that if he'd never had to talk before he wouldn't be quite sure what to say either.

"Dean?" Baby piped up, and it was probably the first time he'd spoken up once he'd stepped foot in the house. Adam realized that this was probably the first time Baby had ever really seen what was inside a house, and he looked a little overwhelmed from all the tiny objects in one place: he was probably only used to simple, straight and narrow paved roads.

"What's up?" Dean asked, sliding an empty prescription pill bottle to another location on the map and looking like he was thinking.

"I think I'm running on empty," He answered, looking very concerned. Adam thought about how even his voice sounded a lot like the Impala: somewhat grumbly and low, and Adam didn't understand why Dean had been so set on Baby being a girl.

"What?" Dean asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I think... Do you mean you're _hungry?" _Sam suggested, and then he started to chuckle. Baby looked up with a grin, the smile narrowing his eyes ever so slightly, finally understanding the feeling he was getting.

"My god, we need to go out for drinks sometime and catch up." Dean laughed, the fact that this man before him was really his car was just so crazy that he still almost didn't believe it, until funny comments like that were brought up and he was reminded once again.

About an hour later, there was a large thump in the living room. Dean and Baby had been in the kitchen, and Dean was getting a great laugh out of the fact that every time he pressed unlock on the car keys, Baby let out a big hiccup, something he'd discovered on accident. Sam was inside with Adam and Bobby, trying to explain the plan on the map to a confused Adam, while Bobby tried to suggest improvements.

The five men rushed to the living room to see that Gabriel had returned, and he had the knife in hand.


	9. The Great Ebony Heist

_A few hours earlier..._

Gabriel materialized in front of the shiny white building, and he went to lean on one of the walls as he waited for Crowley to meet up with him. He looked up to see a few security cameras, and with a lazy flick of his wrist he popped the glass in the cameras and in the lightbulbs, and he was plunged into mostly darkness, the only light coming from the yellow tinted street lamp across the street. He conjured a lollipop out of thin air and popped in into his mouth.

"Here he is, Mister television star." Gabriel heard the deep, heavily accented voice before he saw the man. Crowley stalked out of the darkness, his eyes has the faintest of red a glow before he walked into the dim light, and he was wearing his usual all black suit & tie.

Gabriel casually plucked the lollipop from his mouth.

"Alrighty-o, before we get started, let's get one thing straight." Crowley lifted his eyebrows, prompting Gabriel to continue.

"Fuck you, and your mother. Okay, let's go." Gabe chuckled as he went to head into the back entrance.

"Very mature, Willy Wonka. This isn't something to be taken lightly." Crowley cracked his knuckles in succession, and a few demons appeared out of the darkness behind him.

"My boys here'll scout it out first. Then, we'll head in for the blade. Got it?"

"Yeah, yeah. Piece of cake," Gabe said, sucking on his lollipop again. He crouched by the doorway, getting ready to slip inside quietly once Crowley's pawns had been defeated. _You'd think I'd be used to this by now, after living through all those awful action movies. _Gabriel thought to himself, grinning.

He could tell by his quick scanning that the knife was carefully tucked away in the top of the complex in a heavy vault. When Crowley gave him an amused lift of the eyebrow, that was when Gabriel headed in. He slipped through the doors agile as a cat, and once he was through he set off to making multiple duplicates of himself, which flickered to life one-by-one beside him, as they strode along with the same gait and the same look on their faces. They all intended to take one floor as the real Gabriel and one more decoy set off for the top floor to the vault.

Gabriel heard the sounds of war raging from downstairs as he quickly teleported upstairs, as Crowley's men were both tearing up the Leviathans and they were being torn up. Battles raged with Gabriel's doubles and the Leviathans as well, Gabe could feel the projections of him dropping like flies. However, something else was strange. His projections weren't only fighting Leviathans, Gabriel thought, as he sensed that there were many other dangerous creatures in the building as well: vampires, forcibly turned werewolves, even shifters.

_C'mon, c'mon. You don't have much time_, Gabriel thought desperately as he snuck along the too-clean hallway, pressing to the sides of the walls, following the lead of his possibly last double.

The decoy got into the vaulted room no problem, and started working on the vault. _C'mon, c'mon..._ Gabriel urged himself as he worked through the actions of his double to open the vault, while the real one simultaneously looked out for anyone approaching.

"Shit!" Gabriel heard the word escape his lips as he was knocked over at full speed by a Leviathan who had come out of nowhere.

_When the hell have they been able to do that?_ Gabriel thought wildly to himself as he struggled to get the filthy thing off of him.

"We've learned a few tricks since you've been gone," The man mocked him, extending a claw-like hand and starting to sink his inhumanly strong fingers into Gabriel's stomach, ready to really end him forever this time. Gabe saw his last double collapse in the corner of his eye, another Leviathan's arm deep into the decoy's stomach before it flickered out and disappeared.

Gabriel tried to think quickly, and he conjured a sharp axe out of thin air and swung hard at the man pinning him down. The creature's head went flying, but not before Gabriel had already suffered the damage; the monster's hand had already deeply punctured him. Gabriel shoved off the body that had gone limp and clutched his middle in pain. Black goo oozed out between his fingers, and when he lifted up his shirt he saw the damage wasn't as bad as it could have been, the black veins didn't spread very far, but it sure did hurt like a bitch. There was a gaping, fist-sized hole that looked like it was lined with tar. Not only did the physical injury hurt, but the stark contrast of the poisonous, black and sticky evil pained Gabriel's pure grace to an even deeper level. He stood up with some difficulty as he was trying to keep pressure on the wound.

"Don't say I never did anything for you," Crowley said wearily as Gabe came eye-to-eye with the man, who had just beheaded the other Leviathan. "Quickly, crack the safe open. There's no telling when we'll be in for another surprise attack," Crowley continued quite calmly as he wiped his hands of the little flecks of black with a scarlet satin handkerchief.

Gabriel pressed both hands forcefully onto the thick steel door, closing his eyes. He tried to ignore the deep pain of his wound, and was trying to move the many steel contraptions that interlocked inside. There was audible clicking and grinding as he figured it out, and finally the two-foot-thick door swung open with a deep creak. He took his hands off the safe, leaving black tar handprints on the iron.

Inside, placed perfectly in the center on a little pedestal, was the ornate wooden box. Gabriel quickly made another double to test the waters: he grabbed the box, and right away a trap swung up at lightning speed from the floor and stabbed the double right in the chest, and it quickly flickered out.

"Damn," Gabriel mouthed, as he saw that the weapon that had clattered to the floor was an angel's blade, probably stolen from one of the many victims the Leviathans had killed already. Gabriel was smart enough to open the box to check the cargo: the deep black, gold-and-red flecked blade was there, resting among the blood-red satin. However, Gabriel's split-second stall had cost him, as the next round of Leviathan had arrived, and Gabriel almost lost his grip on the small box as he was thrown with enough force to dent the side of the safe.

Not thinking to stick around and try and help Crowley, Gabe flew quickly back to Bobby's house, dropping into the couch in the living room, clutching his middle with one hand. He felt like the tar-like substance in his wound was spreading, and the poison was making his veins ache, yet also feel like they were aflame.

He only opened his eyes when he noticed than everyone had gathered around him.

"I got your magic Bigmouth Stick so you can go and kill Dick. Hey, I'm a poet and I didn't even know it," Gabriel joked wearily, as he held the box tightly in one hand and his wound in the other.

"What the hell happened?" Sam asked, quickly taking the box from Gabriel's hands, and he moved both of them to shield the black oozing pit in his stomach.

"Apparently they can teleport now?" Gabriel said somewhat angrily, clutching his wound. Man, it hurt.

"Gabriel? I thought you were dead. " Gabe turned his head to see his little brother Castiel looking at him with concerned eyes. Of all the pricks that he called family, Cas was probably his favorite. He remembered when Cas had first joined his family not too long ago. He was still pretty much a toddler in Gabriel's eyes. He remembered thinking, there's just something a little bit different in this one. He's more like me than anyone else here. Cas had tried to hide it, but Gabriel could still see that he was different no matter how hard he tried to conform to the rules. It was pretty comforting to have just one member of his family there to support him in for fighting for the humans.

"They've hurt you." Castiel stated, lifting his older brother's shirt slightly to try and see the wound.

"Just a little down time and I'll be fine." Gabe tried to reassure him. "I'd start planning what you're gonna do with that now that I went through all that trouble to get that for you," He said, closing his eyes and trying to relax.

"This might be our only shot at Dick," Sam said, taking the knife out of the box and holding it up to the light. Looking closely, there were some engraved strange letters on the side of this one too, as the flecks of gold and crimson twinkled up at him.

"Oh yeah, they've got other big bad wolves working for them too," Gabriel added. "You've seen what that crap they put in the food can do to vampires, and I'm guessing it can poison the other monsters too. It's the biggest double-play: they can control the humans through their food source, and in turn they're controlling the monsters by controlling the monster's food source. Don't you get it? They've really had some time to think this out, haven't they? They've got all kinds of monsters to come on their side solely for survival, vampires, shifters, they're even forcing the early transformation of werewolves for their side."

Dean sighed and slid a hand down from his forehead to his chin. "Can you at least get my car back to normal? I could use one less thing to worry about," He said, irritated.

"Sorry, kiddo. I'm not strong enough for that right now. I can fix letting you drive one, how about that?" He said wearily with another snap, and nothing seemed to change. Dean didn't look very satisfied.

"C'mon, let's go into town." He took the truck keys out of his pocket again, exchanging glances with Adam, Baby and Sam.

The four piled into the bench seat, similarly to before, and this time the car started up smoothly enough and they pulled out of the lot quickly, Dean behind the driver's wheel, obviously. Dean could use a quick drive and maybe a few beers to clear his head after the whole morning was spent cooped up, planning, and now this awful bad news.

Cas stayed in the house with his brother, sitting next to him in a chair and talking quietly to him in Enochian so Bobby couldn't eavesdrop, which he looked at them grumpily for. In them both being able to read each other's minds, there was a lot of breaking off and interrupting in the conversation, which Bobby found extremely sharp and displeasing, he tried to occupy himself with something else as the rough, strange language was almost overwhelming his ears.

"_Do you possess the knowledge of how perilous the sitution will it be? Do you have the curiosity of..."_ Cas started, frowning slightly as he thought about what could happen, but also as he heard how rough he still was in the language that took millions of years to master. He'd kept the same principles when he started speaking English: using the most complex words available from the recesses of Jimmy's mind, extreme formality, flowery wordiness. He'd been speaking English for so long now too, that he seemed to be regressing in his learning of the extremely complex mother language.

"_They won't die, no, this isn't their fate. I can't tell what might happen from there though, Cas. Adam's been to..."_

_"He had been to long away from now, in post-gate era, I am aware. I have tried to perform the action of making him aware he cannot disclose the information he's obtained to his kin." _Cas said, and Gabriel smiled a bit at him, finally speaking in English again. "You've gotten a little rough, brother. You've been speaking too much English nowadays." He joked, and Castiel looked embarrassed.

"_I believe I posses the ability to recall a remedy for your affliction, if you'd grant me your_ _permission to tend to the wound_." He replied again not in English, but he tried extremely hard to speak his best Enochian after his brother's jab. He could tell he was still saying things with too much formality and without the proper grammar again. Maybe he _was_ spending a little too much time with the humans, but he couldn't exactly spend quality time with his family with the war still raging in heaven. He missed the company of his brothers and sisters.

_"_Sure, knock yourself out." Gabe said, closing his eyes and Castiel got up to get materials for the mixure he was straining to recall. His mind was a bit clouded from worry about the prospects of trying to defeat the Leviathan.


	10. Until They Turn to Dust

**Thank you everyone for following, reading and commenting on my story! It makes me so so happy, I love everyone who reads my story! :D ****I have so many more plans for these guys, and each review or follow gives me that much more motivation to write down the stories my imagination cooks up! Enjoy :)**

* * *

Meanwhile, the four men were packed in the front of the truck, their shoulders bumping together as they rode together with the low sound of the radio playing, but instead of it being awkward it was somewhat comforting: the four who had been through much together didn't want to talk, as they all tried to clear their heads for just a little while after all that bad news they'd received.

So, the Leviathans really were much smarter than they had seemed at first. In using a compound that both made people complacent and was poisonous to monsters, they had both of them right where they wanted them. Apparently the monsters had to rely on the Leviathan just to eat, and now they'd have to deal with them as well.

"Excited for your first tattoo?" Dean asked Adam. "I'm just scared you're too skinny, the needle'll go right through you!" He continued, giving a playful sidelong glance at Adam, who pretended to be mad as he bumped shoulders roughly on Dean.

"I'm thinking I'll stay with Adam 'till he's done, you look like you could use a drink. Why don't you and Baby head out, and we'll meet up later?" Sam offered, seeing right through Dean's playful antics into just how exhausted he was. Especially after all the emotional draining of yesterday (it was obvious Dean had taken his illusion the worst), and all the thinking and planning he'd been doing today, Sam felt like the least he could do was give him a few hours of downtime.

"Sure, sounds great." Dean agreed as they pulled up in front of the tattoo parlor. Sam and Adam hopped out and headed inside.

Dean and Baby remained in the truck, as they went to head out to one of the local bars.

"You know, this might be the worst time to be a human with emotions, 'cus I'm worried sick about this 'storming the company' thing you're going to be doing." Baby said, looking out the window at the passing stores.

Dean let out a puff of air and scoffed. "You kinda sound like my dad. No, I take that back. You sound like a dad," Dean replied.

"You shouldn't be so harsh on John, Dean. He was never the same since Mary died, something changed in him. I need you to know he wasn't always like that." Baby answered, defending his previous owner fiercely.

"Why should I care what he was like before mom died? That wasn't what I grew up with!" Dean snapped back, not realizing how bitter just talking about his dad was making him. He was being stretched very thin and felt like anything could throw him off at the moment.

Baby sensed his change in attitude right away. I guess you could describe him as a professional eavesdropper, as that's what he had done for all if his years. He knew everything about emotions, and conversation, and where it should lead, but it was a bit hard actually applying it.

"Do you remember when..." Baby started out quietly, judging to see if Dean would snap at him to be quiet, but Dean unconsciously looked like he really wanted to hear the story.

"...Your mom was so set on getting you involved in T-ball, but your dad hated the sport,and you kind of did too, but it made your mom happy, so you both went? There was that one time when it was game day, and you had acted excited for your mom, but once it was only you and your dad, you started kicking and screaming and throwing a fit..." Dean looked sideways at Baby, hazily remembering. Oh god, that had been such a long time ago. He had probably just turned five.

Baby smiled as he continued. "John just looked at you and said 'I don't want to go either. How about ice cream?' " Dean's lips pulled into a smile as the memory he hadn't visited in so long suddenly tumbled back into his mind.

"So you two drove me the complete opposite direction, and went and got ice cream instead. Then, John said it was your little secret. After that, you never had to go to another T-ball game again, remember that?" Dean was unconsciously smiling, remembering that time when his dad really had been a great father.

"Do you want to know why? That night, John and Mary went for a drive, and John told the fattest lie that he'd gotten into an argument with the coach for not putting you in because you were such a wonderful player, and that he punched the coach, and than you followed suit and punched a kid, then the whole team went ape shit- Mary didn't believe any of it, obviously." Baby assured him. Dean felt a hollow pit in his heart at hearing this story he'd never heard before. He could almost see the scene playing out in front of them, it was such an accurate portrayal of what his parents really had been like.

"She was a brilliant actor. She acted amazed at the whole story. She only told John at the end of the night at what a horrible liar he was, and how she knew they hadn't gone to the game all along from the ice cream stains she found on your shirt. She had been such a great sport," Baby laughed as he recalled that night. "They agreed you'd never have to go to another game."

Dean blinked and a single tear fell from his eye, but he quickly wiped it away, embarrassed. Would his dad and mom be proud of what he was doing today? He had no idea. That story made him sad, but kind of happy at the same time, being reminded of when life was easy and he was young. The two parked and got out, happening to slam the two doors shut at the same time.

"Let's go have a few and unwind, alright bud? I'd say we deserve it," Dean said.

"I'd drink to that," Baby replied, grinning.

...

The man looked suspiciously at Adam and Sam.

"How old did you say you was?" The extremely tattooed man behind the counter asked.

"He's seventeen. I'm his brother, also his legal guardian," Sam insisted, as the man's eyes darted from left to right, to him Adam seemed like a kid no older than sixteen.

"I don't want no screaming. If I get any fucking screaming you're both out, no refunds. I ain't supposed to ink no minors," he said, reluctantly looking at the picture Sam gave him of the anti-possession tattoo.

"We get it, sir. He won't even make a sound," Sam said, confident of his statement. Adam was tougher than nails. The fact he'd been down in the Cage for a great deal longer than him and was still up and running was amazing, especially because he'd been thrown down there so young.

As Adam sat there getting the symbol tattooed above his heart to match his brothers, he got a strange feeling. It wasn't from the needle of course, he didn't even notice the tattoo he was getting. It was something in the air: it felt off. It felt like maybe something bad was coming. Adam wasn't sure if he had kept even the slightest of things from when he'd been a half-angel, but he felt that strong intuition picking at him like from before.

...

Dean and Baby talked nonstop as Baby recalled stories that Dean had completely forgotten. "I'm gonna miss you when you're gone," Dean admitted, smiling at the guy who he'd really known his whole life. Baby suddenly turned pretty sullen.

"I can never forget that feeling of carrying Sam's and your dead weight in the back. You have to take care of yourselves, okay? Promise me," He said, greatly emphasizing the last sentence, putting a hand on Dean's shoulder. "I'm serious. This plan you have is worrying me. You have to promise."

"Okay, okay. Yeah, I promise." He replied, taking a swig of his drink. "C'mon, Baby, we didn't come here to stress out, okay?" Baby still knit his eyebrows together in concern as he looked away and took another sip of his own drink.

A guy sitting next to them at the barstools snorted and rudely smiled at them, laughing and pointing at the two of them to show his friends from somewhere else in the club.

Baby stood up roughly, the bar stool screeching on the ground loudly. "You got a problem?" Baby asked, staring down the pinched-face man with an angry expression, clenching his fists.

"Baby, stop." Dean said, and just a second after he said it he realized how it sounded. These people didn't know that Baby was his literal _name. _He'd completely forgotten how it had sounded to others to call him that.

"This isn't a fuckin' gay bar," The man laughed, as he slipped off his stool as well. "Why don't you and your stupid ass friend get outta here, faggot?"

Baby reeled up and punched the man in the face, hard. He felt down, bringing his hand instinctively up to his newly split lip, looking up with wide, surprised eyes.

"You ever talk like that about me and my friend again, I'll hit you so hard your grandparents 'ill feel it. Understand?" Baby said fiercely, threateningly leaning over the man and dragging him up roughly by his coat lapels. He then shoved him against a wall -hard-and let him drop to the ground.

"You!" The bouncer in the front pointed at Baby. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"I was just leaving," Baby grumbled in his low voice, pushing back his windy black hair that had fallen in his face. He cooly brushed the residue of blood from the man's lip off of his knuckles with one rough sweep. The bouncer tried to grab Dean's shoulders to throw him out, but Dean quickly shoved him off and brushed his own shoulder off, as if the man's touch was making him dirty. The whole club was staring at their dramatic exit, speechless, most were clearly impressed.

Dean caught up with Baby as they strode out of the bar, and with one look at each other, they both burst out laughing.

"I can't believe you did that!" Dean laughed, recalling the whole incident again. "Do you even know what that word means?"

Baby shrugged, and the two started laughing again, Dean had to plant his hand onto the wall to keep from falling over.

"Dude, you're awesome." Dean smiled. "Where'd that phrase even come from?"

"Dunno. I guess I overheard it said one time and just thought I'd use it." Baby said, smiling, his grey-blue eyes twinkling. Dean now couldn't see how he had been so convinced that Baby absolutely had to be a girl, he could keep his personality as anyone.

Dean's cell phone rang, and he quickly picked it up. "Yeah," He said, realizing it was Sam who was calling.

"Adam's just about done, where should we meet you guys?"

"Well, our visit got cut a little short." (with this, he grinned and slid at glance at Baby) "We'll just come pick you up, okay?"

"Alright. Bye."

Dean closed his phone and slipped it into his pocket. When he looked back up at Baby, he saw something that made his heart jump to this throat.

"Watch out!" He tried to cry out, but it didn't register in time. Two men and one woman had come out of nowhere, each one was wearing a deep frown, and Dean could tell right away that they were Leviathan. One had rushed toward Dean, and before he had time to react, threw him with ultra-human strength into the brick wall. Dean felt a few of the bricks split beneath his back before he crumpled to the ground.

"_Where. Is. The. Blade._" The man hissed at him, his putrid breath curling into his nostrils. Baby rushed to his side, gripped the monster's shoulders, and threw him as hard as he could. Dean tried to get up, but Baby had already slipped the shiny black knife from its sheath in Dean's belt, and did a single, powerful slash at the Leviathan he'd just thrown.

The slash didn't yield the typical tarry, black blood, but instead the split revealed deep brown dust, a bit of which flung into the air with a crescendo, following the motion of the swiping blade. Instead of the electric results they'd seen with the demon knife, or the waterish reaction they'd seen from the Earth's blade, the Leviathan fell down with a crumbling wound, the dusty chunks now spread a good few inches past the split of his skin, concaving its chest into pebbles of brown soil.

Baby took in a deep breath and coiled up to get the other two, fiercely unmoving as he kept his feet planted firmly on the pavement in front of where his owner had collapsed, trying to defend him as he spread his arms and legs apart, getting ready to slash again. Dean scrambled to try and get up, and saw that the Leviathan had rushed at Baby, and just when Baby had thrown his whole body into another deep slash, the Leviathan just disappeared in the blink of an eye, and reappeared right behind him, a knife already dug deep into his back.

Baby's face showed his great shock as his hands quickly curled up to the silver, pointed triangle sticking out from the front of his chest. "You're gonna pay for that," The beast hissed into his ear, and it roughly ripped the blade out once again. Baby clutched at his chest, and clear and colorless, foul-smelling liquid dripped onto his shaking, curled fingers. He finally collapsed to the floor, staring at the sky with fearful and blank eyes.

Dean swiped the dark blade from his loose hand and plunged it deep into the second Leviathan, the heart and skin above it quickly faded to an earthy brown and sunk, pebbles of dust rolling into the indent as Dean shoved the slain monster out of the way, slashing at the third and last Leviathan, feeling extra driven as he thought about the innocent, wounded Baby who had fought with all his strength to help defend him.

Dean only nicked the surface of his skin at the arm, the last Leviathan coughed and a puff of brown dust swirled from her mouth. "You'll pay, Winchester." She spat, coughing a great dust cloud again. "You're fucking dead," She said acidly, staring up at him with narrowed eyes, as brown dusty soil started to stream from her nostrils and corners of her eyes.

"No, you are." Dean sneered as he plunged the blade deep into the monster's chest, and kicked the still-standing body over harshly with the heel of his shoe.

"Baby, are you okay?" Dean cried, rushing over to the fallen figure. He looked up blankly at Dean.

"What...happened...?" He asked, looking like an afraid little kid. He was leaking petroleum, as the stinging smell permeated the air.

"You're going to be okay," Dean insisted, getting a determined look on his face as he knelt down and tried his best to support the heavy, dead weight from the man who was quite a bit taller than him. The acrid fuel smell was making him lightheaded as he rushed to the truck with him.

"You know what's funny, I'm usually carrying you, but now you're carrying me." Baby said hazily, and he then smiled serenely.

"No, shut up. You're going to be fine," Dean insisted again, looking at the face which he'd grown so accustomed to in just a day. "Just...hang on."

He screeched out of the lot, and the speedometer climbed unwavering as he rushed to the tattoo parlor, and swung into the lot recklessly.

"Something's happened," Adam told Sam when he saw the old, dusty white truck swing violently into the lot. "Something bad, oh, I could tell..."

"Sam! Take him and ride in the back," Dean ordered as he'd jumped out and opened the passenger's side door.

"But what...?" Sam started.

"Don't ask me, okay. Just watch out for him," Dean said, sprinting around to get in the front again. "Adam, hop in the back and help Sam."

Adam didn't need to be told twice. He felt a great, sinking worry for Baby. Him and Sam stretched him out over their legs, riding in the truck bed as they sat with their backs to the truck's window, Sam supporting Baby's head and putting pressure on the wound, helping him press down over his own weak hands on his chest.

"You'll have to be careful. They'll kill anything that gets in the way of them and the knife," Baby said quietly to Sam.

"Do you think you'll be okay?" Adam asked, feeling scared as the smell of gasoline grew stronger with each passing second.

"I've been through worse, haven't I?" He had a tiny smile on.

The men burst through the door with Baby, walking in on Gabe and Cas quietly talking in some weird language, Gabriel had his stomach wrapped up in gauze and he already looked better, there was more color in his cheeks and the familiar sparkle in his eye.

"Bad news, Gabe." Dean said, as he stumbled inside, trying to hold up Baby. "Leviathans know that we have the knife, and they rushed us."

Gabriel looked over at the dark-haired man who was now resting on the other couch. The room was just beginning to be permeated with the smell of petrol.

"The dagger worked, than?" He asked, almost casually. Dean felt infuriated. Couldn't he see Baby right in front of him? Why didn't he offer to fix him, or turn him back to normal, or something?

"...What? Yeah, it worked, why do you think I'm here then? Please, just do something for him..."

Gabriel looked up at Dean with raised eyebrows. "Dean, he's just a car. He's not going to die. He was stabbed, wasn't he? He would have died by now if he was going to. He just needs a little patchwork, and he'll be fine. He's a tough cookie, but you already knew that." However, he didn't say this in a mean or caustic way. He was almost reassuring, _nice. _It was weird. Dean looked at him, skeptical.

"Come 'ere," Gabriel said, motioning for Baby to come over to him. The man hobbled over, looking scared and in pain. Gabriel touched him lightly on the arm, and the clear fuel stopped leaking and wicking into the white cotton shirt Baby was wearing. Baby collapsed on the couch next to Gabe, closing his eyes and looking skyward, letting out a deep sigh.

"You and me both, bud." Gabe said in response. They'd both been hurt because of this damn knife, and it had better be worth it.

Baby kept his eyes shut, and exhaustedly leaned on the couch, resting. He smiled just a little, even though it hurt. He was just happy that he was able to finally help his owners, the ones that he watched over for so many years. After so long of only being a helpless spectator, he felt like he'd actually saved his friend's life tonight. And that made him happier than he thought imaginable.


	11. The Black Swan

**I recently watched Black Swan and I was thinking about how much fun it would be to write a creepy piece. Enjoy for Halloween bwahaha! I hope it gives you a halloween-worthy scare! :D**

* * *

"Hey, stop! I know a damn cheat when I see one!" Baby said, closing one eye as his tongue peeked out just a tiny bit, as he slammed his thumbs on to the video game controller.

Adam was right in the middle of something that would probably only be explained in an alternate universe. He was sitting on a couch, in the middle of a car and an angel, playing video games. Baby and Gabriel were both given free passes since they'd both been injured directly because of Purgatory's blade, and the two had become friends almost right away, after being confined to just the couch.

A dark-haired, black leather jacket-wearing young man with a wrapped up chest and an icepack wrapped on his head was fiercely pressing buttons, tilting slightly as he maneuvered the car on the screen, sometimes squinting one of his eyes closed as he turned with the car on screen, as he slammed the buttons as quickly as he could. The man beside him had light brown hair that was slicked back under a Pepsi Max hat, who was only wearing an unbuttoned flannel over a bare, gauze-wrapped stomach, he had a lollipop stuck in his mouth as he looked on almost lazily at the car racing screen, pressing his buttons somewhat slowly but masterfully, and he lazed with one leg on the couch, crooked at the knee to make an arch over Adam, his other leg dangling down.

Adam sat in between them, leaning a bit on Baby, as he was extremely tired, even though he'd woken up hours ago. He wasn't sure why, but lately he'd been getting drained of energy very easily. He'd be ready to fall asleep by mid-afternoon as well. There had been a few series of strange occurrences in the past couple of days, and Adam didn't want to mention them to anyone, because they'd just sound dumb. He had seen a kid walking down the street one time he'd been looking out the window that he swore looked exactly like him. Or, there was a time a few nights ago that the bathroom mirror's image had lagged for just a millisecond.

_Maybe I'm being paranoid, and making all this stuff up. _Adam thought to himself, feeling his eyelids grow heavy as sleep starting to pull him under, as he nodded off with his shoulder on Baby.

"YES!" The young man yelled, throwing his hands up over his head triumphantly as he shot from his seat, causing Adam to jerk awake.

"I won! Kiss my ass, Feathers!" Baby laughed, motioning to the television screen, which showed confetti and a rotating bright yellow sports car, the one Baby had been controlling.

"I can go all day, fucker!" Gabriel shot back, fiddling with his controller as if to warm up. "Plus, I _gave_ you that one!"

"Yeah right! You can't play a damn _car _in a racing game, genius!" Baby shot back, still with a smug smile on his face.

Gabe just pulled out the Impala's keys and gave them a little press. Baby hiccuped loudly and got a pouty look to him. "Give those -hic- back! Gabe, that's not funny!" He tried to wrench the key's out of his hands, but they were interrupted by a sharp scold from Dean.

"You two are pretty lively over there, aren't you? Think you're well enough to help us with this?" Dean piped up from behind them at the kitchen table, where he, Sam and Bobby had set up a complex system to arm themselves when they planned to storm SucroCorp and bring down the Leviathan's leader once and for all. They had bottles of borax and Dead Man's blood, bullet cases and blocks of silver that they'd acquired from who-knows-where. They also had a burner similar to the ones used in Chemistry classes. Adam looked closely and realized that there was white paint on it that spelled out "James Edward High School". Adam smiled and shook his head. They _would _sneak into the local high school and steal it.

"Oh, I would, but damn, my stomach suddenly hurts again..." Gabe faked a sudden bought of pain, as he waved the gesture away and settled back down on the couch. Baby snatched his keys back and looked at Dean, shrugged and had a little 'sorry?' facial expression on.

"It's not like this was all for you guys anyway," Gabe continued, turning to a channel with the starting credits of a movie.

"Pack your bags, we're going on a guilt trip." Sam said, rolling his eyes.

"Hey Addy, think you can help us out?" Dean called to him, motioning for him to join them at table/workspace.

"Sure," Adam said, getting up groggily and rubbing his sleepy face.

"You alright? You've seemed pretty tired the past couple days," Dean commented.

_You have no idea. _Adam thought, straining to keep his eyes open even now. "I'm just worried," He answered. He didn't want to inconvenience his brothers anymore, especially after the hellish experience they'd gone through with him before.

"Here, let me show you the ropes. Here we got some silver, for the werewolves and shifters, which we're melting down and making hollow bullets. Then, we're filling 'em up with a mix of borax and dead man's blood, for the vamps and Leviathan. We're gonna fire on them first, all these elements combined should stun them long enough to storm the complex, cut off the heads if needed."

Adam could tell there was something Dean wasn't telling him. "Who's going to be storming the complex, Dean?" He asked the pointed question. He knew the prospects weren't good.

Dean didn't answer the question directly. "You're going to be on top of the building nearby, with Gabe and this." Dean picked up a heavy looking gun that looked like it belonged on a safari expedition.

"It's an elephant gun. It's got a bit of a kick to it, but it's the strongest one we could find. It should damage the monsters enough to make it a lot easier to get at. It's a big job, Adam. Think you can handle it?"

Adam nodded, taking the gun. It was smooth and cold, and it felt like it had a history to it. It seemed like a bitter gun, who hadn't just killed animals in its past.

Adam sat down next to Sam, who was melting silver over the bunsen burner and clamping the molten metal into a large bullet mold. Dean went over how to fill the bullets with the blood and borax mixture, telling Adam to be careful of air bubbles and potential holes in the metal. Adam rubbed his face again and set to work. He was trying to make as many as possible, but it was tedious and very hard for Adam to do, since the repeated actions was making him even sleepier. His blinks went longer and longer as he felt sleep dragging him under, the voices sounding faraway already.

"Adam?" Sam was calling for him, and finally had to shake his shoulder a little.

"Huh?" Adam said, shaking his head to stay awake.

"I've called your name a few times now. You seem a little too tired, bud. Why don't you head off to bed? You've made enough already." Sam encouraged him, taking the tools directly from Adam's hands. "Thanks," Adam smiled up at him with as big of a smile he could muster. Sam smiled back, but both of them knew that Adam wasn't happy. Adam was really just scared and worried. Maybe that was the only factor playing into why he was so exhausted, or why he felt like he'd been losing his mind.

" 'Night guys," Adam called out to Baby and Gabe on the couch. Gabe was lying down, his legs arched over Baby as he put his feet on the opposite armrest, as they were both munching away on big bowls of popcorn that Gabe had conjured up. Gabe yawned and stretched an arm limply over his chest as he watched the movie sideways from his headrest, and Baby hugged his bowl of popcorn as he sat stark upright, enjoying the movie.

"So he was a ghost the whole time?" He asked Gabe, enthralled, as he put another handful of popcorn into his mouth, eyes unmoving from the TV, which was playing "The Sixth Sense".

"The plot twist of all plot twists." Gabe responded with an air of sarcasm. Then he turned to Adam and gave him a little wave. "Yeah, night Adam."

Adam went into the back to go to sleep, but walking down the hall things felt a little off. It was almost like he'd never been in this house before, like it was a different hallway of a house with the same blueprint plan. He couldn't shake that cold feeling that something was watching him as he dropped off into bed, which he knew was right by the door, too tired to even turn off and on the light switch.

Adam woke with a start what seemed like only a few hours later, and there was a chill in the house. He looked down and realized he had never even gotten under the covers. Maybe the chill in the air was what had caused him to wake up again. He couldn't get back to sleep again, as he felt like he'd just been dumped into cold water. He sat up and rubbed his face, but for some reason he didn't feel that same foggy sleepy feeling as before, he felt wide awake and pumped full of adrenaline. He swung his legs over and got out of bed, walking along the hallway with silent bare feet on the cold, wood floor.

He turned on the hall light and was met with a painful blast of bright white, as he felt his irises contract harshly. He rubbed his eyes and stumbled forward, expecting to be out in the living room by now. He looked out with light-adjusted eyes and made out the sleeping figures of Gabe and Baby on their two separate couches. He saw the dimmest of lights coming from the kitchen, and he decided to see who else was awake.

"Hello?" He whispered as he turned the corner, and instead of seeing the back of a head with brown or dirty blonde hair, he saw a head with long ringlets of blonde hair streaming down her back.

The person turned: It was Adam's mother. But something was just slightly off about her, the light coming from above the kitchen table distorted her, just something about her face wasn't right. She looked like an ill-drawn portrait where the directions of the eyes were just slightly off, one was too shiny while the other was dull. Her face had a slight unevenness that was barely detectable, but he could tell something was wrong about her.

"Adam." She declared, but the voice wasn't the same as Adam remembered. Still, Adam couldn't keep away from her. He looked around, and now instead of the kitchen he saw nothing but blackness.

"Why did you do it, Adam." She stated, looking down and playing with what was in her hands, the largest knife in the kitchen. She swiveled the knife from side to side on its point, and the silver glinted into Adam's eyes in the dim light. She extended one of her thin white fingers like a caterpillar onto the sharp blade, and dragged it back softly, slicing her finger open.

"Stop it!" Adam cried out, feeling sick to his stomach. "Please stop," He begged her softly, taking the knife away from her, quickly placing it off to the side with a clatter, and he grasped her hand in between both of his. "Why are you doing this?" He asked her softly, feeling tears springing to his eyes. This wasn't her, not really, but why did he still feel like he ached for it to be her?

"Why did you do it." She said again in a whisper, with a shaking voice. "You were supposed to protect me." She said in a slightly louder whisper this time, eyeing the knife again. "You were supposed to save me." She raised her voice again, it was much louder, accusatory.

"Please," Adam begged, holding her hand between two of his, squeezing them tighter. "Please, if I had known..." He felt a warm tear slide down his face.

"You did know. You were supposed to save me. You killed me." She said in a hushed voice, almost chanting it.

"I...I didn't know, mom, please..." Suddenly, the woman had grabbed for the knife again.

"Yes, you did. You killed me, Adam. You killed me." She took the knife and looked like she was about to stab herself with it.

"No!" Adam cried, jerking his hands off of hers and twisting the other way. "You're not real, she's gone, I didn't know!" He cried, pressing down over his ears as hard as he could. He felt a cold and sticky sensation over his ears, and he took them off the sides of his head.

He felt his fingers shaking and he looked down to his upturned palms up to see his pale hands in the dim kitchen light, and his right hand was holding the knife, which was now covered with wet, scarlet blood. It was all over his palms, shining in the light in contrast to his pale white palms. He threw the knife down in a jerk reaction, feeling disgusted with himself.

He rushed to the sink, and turned on the water all the way up with violently shaking fingers. He shoved his hands under the water and began scrubbing, but although he could see the water running over his hands, he felt no sensation. Nothing was coming off, either.

"It's not coming off, it's not coming off." Adam chanted to himself, feeling panic rise in his chest. "It's not coming off, it's not..." His voice rose with each word, he felt a sick fluttering.

He went to try and go back to the living room where he could wake Baby or Gabe for help, but instead there was no living room, no peacefully slumbering men on couches. He instead felt himself being pressed into a dark, narrow hallway. He tried to reach for a light switch, but as he groped the wall he found nothing and only left sticky residue behind. He kept pushing on through the dark hallway, straining his eyes in the darkness, and thinking he could barely pick up the view of a grandfather clock at the end of the hall. The ticking emerged from the silence, and it got louder and louder with each silent, sticky barefoot step Adam took down the claustrophobic hall.

The ticking was booming by the time he even got close to the old grandfather clock. The golden pendulum swung back and forth in time, and erie light shone off the of the clock face, which had a mix of odd numbers all along the face, and about four hands pointing everywhere. Adam spotted his reflection in the swinging golden pendulum, he stared at the very center as the golden sphere swung in and out of sight, giving him just strobes of his reflection.

Suddenly, a figure was behind Adam. Adam jumped and swung around, about to scream. A hand clamped over his mouth before he could make a noise, and Adam smelled the strong metal scent of blood on the person's hands and sleeves. His eyes looked directly into other set of bright blue, as he came inches to his own face.

"_Shhhh. _I need you to help me with something." The Other-Adam told him, his eyes void of any light or sparkle. They looked flat, even evil. His face was identical to Adam's, except for the fact that it was wearing an expression Adam would never have: he looked accomplished, proud, but in a bad way, like he'd gotten away with something horrible and was smug about it.

"I... I don't want to get in trouble," Adam whispered back, wringing his hands. He noticed that this Other-Adam had completely red, blood stained hands with red that went all the way up to wick into his sleeve cuffs.

"You won't. Trust me. It's a beautiful thing." The Evil Adam said, smiling malevolently. "C'mere." Adam followed his twin to turn just around a black corner, and he was met with a scene he could only imagine in his greatest nightmares. Sam and Dean were crumpled on the floor, and the Other Adam stood over them, smiling with an evil glint in his eyes.

"Help me hide them?" He asked innocently with a little raise of the eyebrow.

"You can't do this to me!" Adam cried out, his whole body shaking as he witnessed the hellish scene before him. He sprinted at and tackled his evil self, grabbing for something, anything...

A shard of glass seemed to materialize in his palm, and with a hateful rush of energy he stabbed the evil Adam that was sneering up at him square in the stomach. "You can't do that! You took my mother, you took my father, you will not! Take! Them!" With the last few words, he punched the glass in again and again, squeezing his eyes shut as his body shook and he climbed off of the body. Tears were streaming from his face, and he brought his hands to his face, and he felt like the whole room was spinning when he inhaled the pungent metal smell again.

_The Other Adam. I have to get rid of it. _Adam thought to himself, opening his eyes again. But instead of the defeated malicious Adam lying there lifeless, the face in the dim yellow light had changed to that of Dean's. _It was him all along, Adam. You've killed your own. Couldn't you tell it was him all along?_

Adam brought his hands over his mouth in shock and backed up, bumping into a closet door which hadn't been there before. _Hide it. Hide it, hurry. You can't get in trouble. _Voices whispered in his ear, and shaking Adam took his brother's ankles and started to drag him across the floor into the closet. Dean stared up at him through half-closed lids, the blank expression on his face almost worse than one of anger or fear. The cold, lifeless green eyes seemed to be staring right into his soul. A red slick trailed behind the body as he shoved it into the closet with disgust, shoving the door closed as he felt a sickly thud on the back of the door . His face felt clammy, but everything felt so starkly real, with a slight dream-like quality like when you get up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water.

Adam saw that his own cuffs were now stained with red. He _was _the Adam he had seen earlier. He _was _evil, he had been bad all along, and he had just killed his own brother. He _knew _it was real, it felt so real...

"Adam?" He heard Sam's voice call, and not a second later, Sam had reared his head out from one of the black corners. "Have you seen Dean anywhere?"

Adam looked to the closet, where a scarlet pool had started to seep from under the closet gap, the puddle was quickly expanding, slipping along the floor thickly.

"No! No, I haven't! No!" Adam insisted, shaking his head, quickly hiding his bloodstained hands behind his back. "He's not in the closet! I didn't kill him!"

Sam went and slowly stalked to the closet, and Adam hung his head. He looked to the floor, and suddenly the pool he'd seen just a split second earlier was gone. Sam turned the doorknob and jerked the door open quickly: It was dark and completely empty inside, with no signs of anything having happened.

Adam looked down with realization: his sleeves were red from clutching his _own _stomach, which was bleeding heavily, red blooming like a flower across his nightshirt. Adam looked down and without even a wince he pulled the glass shard out slowly, and he uncurled his palm emotionlessly as the shard seemed to fall to the black floor in slow motion, before hitting the ground and shattering into a million, frosty glimmering silver and white shards, flying everywhere like stars in the night sky.

Adam looked up wearily, feeling like he was ready for death himself. He was met with only a wall of blackness. Everthing was gone. He heard a slow clapping in the distance, and it got closer and closer. Suddenly, a figure emerged from the pitch darkness, illuminated only by a dim yellow light. The man was still clapping.

"Well done, well done. You've played your part perfectly. I'm going to have so much fun with you." The man said acidly. Adam strained his eyes and came to realization that the man had a familiar face: his father's, and it was about twenty years younger, and his face donned an uncharacteristically evil smile.

"You never escaped hell, Adam. You're still there, and this is the final level of torture. Don't you see? Things had been going so well for you, reunited with your brothers, going to _save the world." _He sneered, stalking ever closer toward Adam. "I'm going to enjoy seeing all that all ripped out from under you, Adam. See what I've done with you tonight? You can relive things like that every day, if I'd like. This is going to be great, isn't it?"

"Why are you doing this to me?" Adam asked him, holding his head in his hands. "Why are you doing this?"

"_You dragged me down here, you little shit."_ Michael spat. "You know nothing of hell. But you might barely grasp the concept once I'm done with you." Then there was an evil, cold, laughter...

Adam struggled to wake up from his nightmare, and he sat up with a start, covered in cold sweat. The sun had barely come up, tinting the sky with a grayish pink. Adam knew he couldn't stay in his house right now, he had to get up and leave, and go somewhere, anywhere...

He rushed to the bathroom and splashed his face with cold water, looking down with immense relief that his palms were clean and pale. He just couldn't shake this feeling that he was dirty and unclean. He stared at his reflection, and noticed that one of pupils had tightly contracted and was only showing the bright blue color of his eye, while the other eye's pupil had expanded to almost its whole diameter, turning the whole circle a deep black, with just the smallest of rims of blue. Adam shook the cold droplets from his hair and quickly rubbed a towel over it, and tiptoed out of the bathroom, grabbed his coat by the door, and slipped out of the house quiet as a cat.

...

"Don't expect me to do this everyday, dammit. You've just been working so hard." Bobby tried to back his claim with gruffness, but Dean couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Smile, this is getting put on the ol' memory card forever." He said, laughing as he whipped out his phone to take a picture. Bobby did the exact opposite and paused just a second to scowl deeply at the phone's camera, a spatula in one hand and a 'kiss the cook' apron on as he made scrambled eggs on the stove.

In the living room, Baby and Gabe were at it again, watching all the movies Gabe recommended.

"It's weird to think that you've never watched a movie before, and now I'm showing you all the classics. Man, you were missing out! " Gabe remarked, as the two were watching the ending of the "Titanic."

"Oi, shhhh! This part is so important!" Gabe said enthusiastically, pointing to the TV screen.

Bobby rolled his eyes and turned back to the eggs. "That damn angel better get out of here and turn your car back to normal before he drives me to kill with all this TVland crap."

"Hey! While you are just sitting there doing nothing productive, why don't one of you clowns wake up Adam?" Bobby called out over his shoulder to the living room.

He was met with no response, but he heard Gabe and Baby conversing.

"No way! She kept the necklace the whole time?"

"She sure did."

"But- even with the nation wide search and the portrait and ev-"

"Yup, she kept it to herself the whole time-"

The two voices were getting increasingly more watery, and Bobby rolled his eyes again as he heard extremely loud theatrical crying coming from the other room.

"Dean, go shut those damn kids up before I do it with a shoehorn." Bobby threatened, swinging around the spatula.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Dean asked, coming to see Baby crying into his hands and Gabe covering his eyes with just one of his hands in a gesture of grief.

"Pull yourselves together, goddammit! All this time being vegetables on the couch has turned your brains to mush! C'mon, get up! You two are helping today, I don't want to hear any more of this 'oh, poor me' crap, you're doing something _productive _today," Dean scolded, taking Baby's upper arm in his grasp and helping him stand up off of the couch.

"Give me a break, Dean. I've only had emotions for like, a day, okay? And that movie was damn sad," Baby said in his defense, clearly embarrassed as he wiped the tears off his face.

"I thought after an ordeal like that without a single tear, you wouldn't be caught dead crying at "Titantic",' Dean joked.

"Oh, shut up." Baby laughed through his tears, wiping them away again, but he was smiling.

"What's your excuse?" Dean pointedly asked Gabriel, as he helped Baby stand up straight and he began peeling off the the gauze to see how he was doing.

"This is one of the movies that even though I've seen in hundreds of times, it just gets better each time. Man, fuck what Balthazar thinks, this movie is the best." Gabe said, and in taking his hand off his eyes they were bone-dry, he'd never really been crying in the first place.

"Quit your theatrics and go wake up Adam, Gabe. What you did to Baby was mean, overwhelming his newfound emotions like that." Dean somewhat scolded as he went to check the sniffling Baby's head, which had also been wrapped in gauze. The side of his head had a somewhat large purpling lump, with just the tiniest of a split of skin.

"You're looking okay. Think you're going to join us like this for the storm, or are you going to go back to normal?" Dean asked the dark-haired man, readjusting his crooked leather jacket in a very big-brotherly way as he tugged at it roughly to reposition it.

"I dunno. It's a lot easier being a car. I really miss it," Baby admitted, sniffling again and dragging the back of his hand over his wet eyes. "I just can't believe she kept the necklace the whole time... and he froze in the water because of her, and then... and then she died and met him at the staircase again-" He started to sniffle again.

"Alright, bud. It's just a movie. Let's get your 'tank filled up.'" Dean laughed to himself once Baby couldn't see his face, as he clapped the car on the back and led him to the kitchen. He'd really miss this guy and all his quirks when he returned to normal.

"Hey, he's not there." Gabe called out, peeking out from the hallway.

"What do you mean he'd not there? Where else could he be?" Dean asked, feeling kind of scared. No one had seen him leave, right?

"Stay here, okay?" He told Baby, as he rushed to grab his coat from the door. "ADAM?!" He called as soon as he stepped foot out of the door.

...

Adam sat by the river in the woods, letting the water run over his hands. He'd rolled up his sleeves as well, and was washing and splashing his lower arms with the ice cold water as well, trying to get clean. The bottoms of his jeans were soaked.

"Adam?" He heard Dean's voice call out from a little way off.

"I'm over here," Adam called out wearily, giving his arms one last scrub.

"What the hell are you doing all the way out here? Why didn't you tell anyone?" Dean asked, trying to sound angry, but it was clear he was mainly relieved that he'd found Adam.

"I just had a nightmare. I'm fine." He said softly, running his hands under the cold water again. He _still _felt unclean. Dean came to kneel next to Adam, and when his little brother turned his head he saw the uneven dilation right away. It made his whole face seem unbalanced, making the choice of which eye to stare into even harder.

"You know you can come to me and Sam for anything, right? No matter how small." Dean tried to reassure him, as he helped him up lightly.

"I know," Adam said quietly in the same, emotionless voice as before. He looked down at the ground in shame.

"Let's head back home and get some hot breakfast, mkay? You should see Bobby's whole get up, it's pretty awesome." He tried to cheer Adam up just a little, giving Adam's shoulder a tiny nudge like they'd always done. Adam only upturned his lips for a split second smile before dropping them again.

"What? You aren't going to tell him? Well, I guess that's not my problem." Michael sneered as he walked next to Adam, constrictingly close to his right side. "I guess it doesn't matter, me being the real one here in this situation."

Adam tried his best to block out the man who he knew wasn't real, but it didn't work very well. He knew he could just deal with this on his own, and ignore the guy. He didn't want to have to burden Sam and Dean _again, _especially when they already had so much on their minds, and after they'd already dealt with a ton of shit with him before. This was one thing Adam was determined he could keep to himself and solve by himself. He didn't want to be a burden anymore.


	12. And Then There Were Three

**Hello after almost 6 months! Oh my gosh, I guess this story is coming back from the dead haha! I just felt bad leaving this story hanging and unfinished, especially because this is the only story I haven't completed! Please leave some reviews, I'd love some support to finally power through and finish this story! I'd hate to leave it unfinished! Each one will make me sit down & write :) Thanks**

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Dean was extremely anxious as he sat at the living room table, he had all three knives out and was fiddling with them instead of getting the sleep he knew they all needed. When he looked at them, he turned them all over and was able to notice the parts that would fit together when all four of them would come together, small parts on their hilts.

"Dean, you should head off to bed." Sam urged him, and he didn't look up as he looked at the blue-silver blade, black with red and gold, and dark grey. Everything they'd need for the raid tomorrow, something he wasn't looking forward to whatsoever. He knew with Crowley and Gabe's help they would most likely end these Leviathans and send them back to wherever they'd come from, and that was something that Cas had told then would have been heaven's top priority if it wasn't so in shambles. He didn't nearly feel as good as he thought he should about it.

"In a minute, Sammy."

He didn't say anything as he heard his footsteps go off into the bedroom. He was so worried he felt sick. He knew that Adam would be okay, he'd be with Gabriel and he'd be on the roof, safe from the fighting on the ground. But something strange had been going on with him lately, and he never talked about it, no matter how much he urged him.

He slipped the blades one at a time back into their triple sheaths, all lined up next to each other. Hell, Earth, and Purgatory. He had to keep them on him at all times, even when he slept. Who knew that the blade he'd been toting around for such a long time had such a dangerous potential? Such a long history?

He finally stood up stiffly and made his way back into his bedroom, not even bothering to switch on the light as he flopped down onto his bed. To his surprise, someone was already in it. Wordlessly, the small, skinny arms wrapped around his neck.

"Why aren't you in your own bed, Addie?" He asked quietly. For some reason, he felt a prick of tears in his eyes. Adam had had a regular life before, he was going to graduate from college and become and doctor and get a wife and kids and never have to meet his cursed brothers. And now he was responsible for this kid, and he was dragging him into even more danger.

"I couldn't sleep." He said simply, and his voice was tiny and sounded so much younger. He sighed and settled down next to him, squeezing his arms tighter as he spoke up. "I don't want to die, Dean. I don't want to go to heaven yet. I want to stay here with you and Sam."

Dean shuffled his arms out over the covers and hugged his brother back. Dammit, he could tell right away that he'd lost weight, that he was skinnier than usual. There was something he wasn't telling him, but now was not the time to interrogate him and make him feel bad. "I am not going to let that happen. You're my brother and I'm going to protect you if it kills me."

"Don't say that." He shot back immediately, frowning and resting his head on his shoulder. "Dean, I..I get these..feelings, and I don't know if it has to do with the blood, but..I have a good feeling about tomorrow. I don't think any of us are going to die."

"I hope so, bud." He whispered back, and he was suddenly aware of how _tired_ he was. "Because we have to get through this. You and Sam are the only family I've got, and...I have to keep that. We have to keep _this_, Adam, all of us together."

"I know _that_, Dean." He smiled just a little and pulled away, resettling right next to him and pulling the covers tight over the top of them. "I don't care that I've gone through some shit because of who our dad was. I'm glad I found you both."

"Me too." He said, and he felt a great wave of despair hit him. It had always been just him and Sam. But now, with their kid brother in the mix; it felt like so much more than just one person. He really had almost a kind of support net, and he just couldn't lose that.

...

"Dean, get that fine ass up out of bed. Crowley's gonna meet us there in two hours." Gabe joked from the doorway, his blade was already in hand. Baby was gone; he'd been pleading with Gabriel to turn him back nonstop for the past few days. It had been the last straw when he'd gotten dirty and pleaded Dean to give him a car wash.

"Baby, we take showers." Dean had laughed, and he forgot to explain the whole showering process to the car. They'd found him drenching himself in the backyard, fully clothed, with the garden hose.

"Who turned up the AC to full blast? Or maybe it's time to break out the snow chains." He said as he shivered in his sopping wet clothes. "I don't like this 'showering'."

He didn't like feeling emotions, and he was often much too confused with what his humans did after they parked and went inside. He figured he'd serve more use as a car, and he liked it much more also. Still, Gabe gave him the ability to turn back into his manifestation if he wanted to, but by the looks of it the overwhelmed car would only turn back in times of emergency.

"Call my ass fine one more time and I'll be ganking yours," Dean shot back at the angel groggily. He felt tears spring to his eyes when Adam had woken up and was now hugging him again, his body was shaking ever-so-slightly. "Five more minutes, Gabe. Just five more minutes, and then I'll get up and die." Adam tightened his arms around him as he said this.

"Not funny, Dean." He said angrily, shutting his eyes and sighing.

"Yeah, Dean. Shut the hell up." Sam added, and he slipped onto the bed next to Adam and rubbed his back when he realized he was trembling.

"It was a little bit funny." He said back, gripping Adam just a little tighter on the shoulder just slightly as he began shaking again. "Nothing's going to happen. You told me you got a feeling, right? You haven't been wrong so far."

"I don't know." He admitted. There was a silence as the brother's didn't want to say anything, it burned away at least half a minute of their precious last five mintues. "You guys are all I've got." He said in a small voice, and the two older brothers didn't say anything as they only came closer to the smallish teenager. The last of their time was spent in complete silence as the little family just tried to think about anything else but the upcoming raid as they fell half-asleep in the warm and cosy room.

"Get that fine, sculpted little booty of yours out of bed." Gabe quipped, smirking as he twirled his blade impatiently. "I'll see you in two hours." He shot out before Dean could yell at him for being an annoying ass, and there was a muffled whump as he disappeared.

"Why are you shaking, Adam?" Michael sneered in his ear. The personal haunting was clinging tighter to his shoulders, breathing down his neck and almost spooning him, for lack of a better word. "Afraid I'll kill off the last two people in the world you can call family? Don't worry, I will. This is my illusion, Adam, you're just living in it."

Adam gripped just a little tighter to Dean as he began to get up to get ready. "Gripping on isn't going to help, Adam. Because you know they'll just slip away." Adam really, really wanted to say something aloud, yell that he wasn't real, tell him to go away, but he couldn't be a burden to his brothers any more than he already had been.

Dean gave his hair a little ruffle as he slid off the bed. "Love you, little shit. We'll be okay." He smiled sadly and started getting their amunition ready.

"Don't you love it when people are idiotically naïve?" Michael jeered. Adam tried to ignore it, and felt just a little better when he felt himself surrounded by Sam's arms, so familiar from the time they'd spent in the cage. He smiled just a little as his hair began getting smoothed down rythmically. It went unspoken, but Sam knew that it helped the kid much more than he let show.

T minus two hours, until the three humans, angels and demons would work together and clash with Leviathans and whatever the hell else they threw at them.

Welcome to the family, Adam.


	13. Down with Dick

**Hello! I really hope to finish this story, and I'd love some support! I hate to leave one of my stories incomplete. Please drop me a review uwu and it will give little Addie at the end of this chapter a hug hehe :) **

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"Sam, _hurry_!" Baby was urging the man as they both scaled the stairway by two stairs at a time. Baby had wanted to act as a body guard as Sam and him sneaked into the building to try and finally kill Roman, much to Dean's dismay. When he'd seen the ol' Impala for the first time since Gabriel had turned him back, he'd let out a huge groan and covered his hands in his face.

"Son of a bitch...GABE!" He looked at the car, which now had a dented frame and cobweb-shattered windsheild at the car's top left corner, where Baby had a brusing head injury before, and a huge, metallic gash right through the top of the car that poked through to the bottom, where he'd been stabbed in human form. "Godammit-this car was in _prime_ condition!" He exclaimed in disbelief, pressing his lips together and frowning.

"Hey, at least we got a free sunroof!" Adam laughed, and Dean shoved him away by the shoulder as the teen brother fell into peels of laughter. "Aw, shut it Pipsqueak," He'd muttered under his breath.

Still, Dean knew it was the best option for a body guard, because the guy literally could not die. He was only a manifestation, but even now he was huffing as the air reeked of petrol. He'd taken _plenty_ of hits for Sam already.

"I know, Baby, we'll get 'im." Sam huffed, digging deep on his heels and surging forward, swiftly running a Leviathan through the small of his back as light brown dirt spattered to the ground and a faint cloud of cinnamon-colored dust coughed into the air as he ripped it out again. He heard the loud noise from down below as he passed an open window, it was incoherent screams and yells, it sounded like a riot. He was only able to see a glimpse, but it _looked_ like a riot too.

At least three hundred people clashed and churned below. It was more feirce than anything Sam had ever seen; demons in human bodies threw themselves at the monsters the Leviathans threw out as diversions, ripping them apart or sometimes being torn apart as vamps or werewolves or whatever-the-hell else retailiated. He only faltered for a minute to quickly pick out Dean; he saw him slash at a vamp, an arc of water splashing out in a crescent as he threw his body into the slash, coming up and getting another one, splattering arcs of water everywhere like he was playing with a hose instead of hunting and killing monsters.

Water for Earth, Fire for Hell and Soil for Purgatory; Sam had been fascinated by the discovery. He guessed it wasn't really a coincidence that many things were always modeled after the balance of the Elements. He wondered what Heaven's would be like; maybe air, or light. At least he wasn't able to find out; he didn't want the location of the last piece of the weapon to be disclosed to anyone. Because he'd figured out something else, something extremely important. The Heaven Blade would be the only object possibly in the universe that could actually, really kill God. And if anyone collected all four pieces- he didn't even want to think about that possibility.

...

Adam was shooting from the roof, the gigantic elephant gun steadied in his skinny arms as he shot down the enemy one by one with the injured but fiery-tempered archangel. At first he'd thought he'd be an utter failure, but soon he realized that almost eerily he was making every single shot he took, even when it looked like it would veer off course.

Adam let out a small gasp as Gabriel dropped his gun and slid to rest his back on the small wall on the roof, closing his eyes and looking a little pale-faced as he clutched at his stomach, which was seeping darkly with ink black poison. "I swear to God I can't wait to get rid of as many of these mother fuckers as possible," He growled, tipping his head back with a slight thunk and closing his eyes. "Out here killing angels with their weird liquid crap- no wonder daddy put 'em in the time out corner."

"Gabriel, are you going to be okay?" Adam asked, feeling his face tighten and get pale as he saw the angel clutching at his stomach. This was supposed to be Gabriel, archangel, an extremely powerful being. And now he couldn't even pull it together enough to shoot a gun. Adam could see why these creatures had been locked away for so long; the only being out there who could kill angels besides angels.

Gabriel eyed him suspiciously as he lined up another shot, squinted through the scope, concentrated and fired perfectly on the mark; a charging werewolf, killing it in it's tracks. "You don't just have a hidden talent for sniping that's suddenly awoken, Addie, believe it or not." He spoke up, lifting an eyebrow and smirking wearily. "You're directing those bullets, guiding their paths. You know, with that little noodle of yours."

He stopped for a split second and looked at the angel, confused. "You mean.."

"You still have a piece in you, I can feel it. Cas's little demiseraph, hm? You're lucky your body didn't just give out." Adam pulled his mouth into a small frown and peered through the scope again. "Yeah. Lucky." He replied softly. This time when he shot, he noticed greatly. The shot had been way off; but somehow the bullet arched quickly to the right target, zipping through the air and the aim was true. Telekinesis sniping. He had to admit; he felt a little badass about that.

"Is that why I get these...I dunno, feelings about certain things?" He asked quietly as he reloaded. He was scaring himself; until around three years ago, he hadn't even known any of this stuff was real. And now he was living it, hell, he _was_ some strange supernatural being, at least part of one.

"You're not too bright, are you?" Gabe poked fun at him, and Adam rolled his eyes and set up another shot. "Shut up, Feathers." When he looked down, he was surprised to see most of the monsters were dropping like flies; they'd killed Dick, he could tell. And somehow, when they'd cut off the head, the body had followed. Adam's eyes went wide with shock.

"_Yes_!" He exclaimed happily, throwing his fist in the air and whooping. His brothers were fucking _heroes_, and he was so proud to call them his family. Finally, it was going to end with all this Leviathan crap. He knew their were always going to be more monsters out there, but with these big bads out of the way- he felt like he was on cloud nine. And he hadn't seen Michael in almost four hours, that was great too.

...

Crowley emerged in the middle of the sea of fallen monster's corpses, his hands in his pockets of his all-black suit as he stared down Dean, who was panting heavily and collecting himself, slipping the blade that was dripping with water back into his sheath at his side. The demons began leaving, the humans throwing their heads back as smoke billowed from their throats and quickly darted elsewhere in the sky.

The man was slow clapping, an unpleasant smile plastered on his face. "A job well done, Winchester. I'll give you that," He started cooly, slinking up closer. "Damn Leviathan have been a crick in my neck for too long now. Absolutely loathed that Roman fellow."

Dean didn't like the way the man was looking at him, and he backed away distrustfully. "Yeah. Hopefully that Dick will stay were he belongs." He answered. "I guess we're back to being enemies now, huh?"

Crowley narrowed his eyes dangerously at Dean, stalking closer. "You really didn't think all this wouldn't come at a price?" Crowley sneered as Dean twisted away, shielding the two blades he kept in sheaths in his belt. He couldn't let him take even one of them: if he collected all four...he didn't even want to think about what could happen if he collected all four. Crowley, not just king of hell but king of, well, _everything..._over his dead body.

"They weren't part of the deal. We said we'd help you get rid of Dick, who I'm guessing isn't exactly your best friend-" Crowley's lips downturned and he nodded in agreement-"and now we've good an' ganked him right to Purgatory. So there is no _price_." He shot back coldly, stepping back and shielding the infinitely important blades from the king of hell's grasp.

"I'm the King of Hell, dumbass, and God of double crossing." He snipped acidly, and then narrowed his eyes dangerously "Now hand it over. The damn Hell's Dagger, Dean!" He couldn't let him have that, even if the cost was his life.

Dean grabbed the familiar hilt of the dagger he'd had for so long, that he'd killed countless demons with in the past. Crowley was coming closer, and it was now or never to kill this double-crossing evil son of a bitch. He whipped it from its sheath, and went in a ripping arc to finally slash the king of hell. But Crowley was making a move of his own.

He grabbed for the remaining blade: the water element of the four, Earth's Demise. Before Dean knew what was happening, there was a piercing pain in his stomach. His hands flew to his midsection in shock, and clear water spilled from beneath his fingers. Crowley had the silvery-blue blade tight in his grip, spraying water out from the wound as he ripped it from him. It was now shining with bright red blood. Then, he was gone.

...

"I have to go down there! Take me down there!" Adam pleaded with Gabriel, tears popping into his eyes as he saw what was happening underneath him, his brother's tense interaction with the black suited demon. He felt it deep within his mind, an overwhelming feeling of dread that he'd only felt a few times before. Something bad, _really_ bad, was going to happen any second.

He watched in horror as Crowley stalked closer with a pissed gait, and his brother slightly twisted away, shielding his side.

"I_ can't_," The archangel responded, clutching at his stomach, which almost looked like it was puking, dark black sludge slipping out of the wound like tar and spilling gooily onto the concrete on the roof. "I'm barely conscious right now, dammit! I shouldn't be here in the first place!" He groaned and gripped his poison wound with one hand, and he drew it away as the sticky blood trailed with his hand as he brought it up to his face and frowned deeply.

"Take me to him _now._" Adam demanded, gripping his shoulders and staring at him with a sneer as his teeth pulled into a grimace and his eyebrows bore down over his shining eyes.

"You're gonna be the goddamn death of me, kid." The angel sputtered out gruffly, and he gripped his shoulder tightly. Adam found himself tumbling to the floor, skidding to a stop as he tried to get up as quickly as he could. He was too late; he saw the black-suited demon make a mad grab from one of the blades in his sheath, while Dean just missed him with a deep slash, and with inhuman-like quickness and motion the demon had sunk the blade into Dean's stomach, ripped it out with a small splash of water, and then vanished without a trace.

"Dean!" The name ripped up Adam's throat as he rushed and grabbed his eldest brother just as he was collapsing, his two hands pressed firmly over the wound as water began spilling through the gaps in his fingers first, then dark red blood. He'd been stabbed with the Earth blade, that Crowley had then promptly stolen.

_God fucking dammit_. He should have known that working with that demon would have had a bad catch, not just because he hated Roman and the Leviathans. He felt his heart pounding in his chest as he pressed hard on top of Dean's hands, as red blood began blooming from under his hands.

"Dean, you can't do this!" He sobbed, feeling his own hands start to get sticky, warm blood on them. "You promised me you'd be okay! You're not allowed to do this!" His eldest brother was breathing raggedly as he struggled to keep his eyes open.

"Add-...take care a'...Sammy..'lright?" He huffed to say, and tears were streaming from Adam's eyes and he pressed even harder against the wound, earning a wheeze from Dean.

"You're not gonna die. I'm not gonna let you die." He choked, pressing down as Dean's wheezing became shorter and shallow. He suddenly just knew what to do. He felt within himself, he was able to pinpoint the extremely small amount of angel left within him when that half died, the piece that was letting him be psychic even afterwards. He directed it to his hands, and he felt like he was voluntarily flattening his palms on a hot stovetop as they flared brightly and hotly, but he still didn't let go.

He felt the piece leaving as he saw that his hands and the wound were now glowing a bright white, and he felt himself slipping. He was able to push through and empty it, all of it, everything he had left into his brother. And then he was falling, black swooshing into his eyes as the noises of everything around him died in his ears.

...

Adam slowly woke up to the sound of a lightly blaring television newscast. He breathed out heavily; shit, his body felt like it had been hit by a semi truck as he rose to conciousness. "A fatal riot erupted this morning at SucroCorp leaving _thirty-seven_ wounded and almost a _hundred_ dead! Our sources confirm the riot was about a new chemical SucroCorp has been using in their synthetic sweeters, but the protest quickly got out of hand and turned into a full-blown riot. Amanda, any news at the site of this morning's riot? ... Well Kim, I'm standing here in front of the SC main headquarters.."

Huh. So the news did more cover-ups than he'd suspected.

"Hey buddy." Adam heard a voice speak up gently. He slowly opened his eyes, and his head was throbbing painfully. He had his head resting on top of Dean's collarbone, and his hand was limply over his eldest brother's stomach as if on instinct, being drawn to the very last place his remaining grace had disappeared. His stomach was heavily bandaged in gauze, and only a small bit of red was seeping from the middle of the white. He guessed he'd been able to make the wound shallower and in turn not fatal, but he hadn't sealed up the whole thing.

"How are you feeling?" Dean asked quietly, and Adam blinked heavily, squinting up his face. "Hm. Okay, I guess." He replied hoarsely. Not really. He didn't expect it when he was pulled into a tight hug, and Dean planted a strong kiss on the middle of his forehead.

"Oh, God. Kid, I don't know where I'd be without you." He said as he squeezed him tighter, and Adam let out a little wheeze. Dean laughed and finally let go. "Oh, ow." He breathed as the laughing pushed his diaphram painfully.

"I'm sorry. That this happened to you, we should have known Crowley would do something like this." Adam said, closing his eyes again. "He has the Earth blade now. How the hell are we supposed to stop him from making this weapon? We can't let him."

"I know. I think we can destroy just one of them, and then this superweapon or whatever won't have to be created. Good thing is I don't think Crowley could be a problem with this Earth blade. Think of all the creatures on Earth that are damn hard to kill- most of them are monsters. Humans could be killed with anything, so it's not like he has a leg up." Dean replied, and looked over when Adam's stomach rumbled loudly.

"Sam's going to be back any second with takeout." He quickly said, he wanted Adam to not have to worry about things for a while after all he'd done for him. His face fell when Adam didn't respond, his light blue eyes just staring blankly off into space, a distant expression on his face.

"Adam?" He was met with no response, and his eyebrows knit together and he frowned. "_Adam_," He prompted, shaking his shoulder as fear began to creep up coldly from his stomach. Something had been going wrong for him for a while now, and he knew it. Adam was stuck in a small daydream as Dean tried to shake him out of it.

"You're not a hero, Adam. I can kill him as many times as I want. _Watch me_." Michael sneered, and Adam tried to convince himself he was hallucinating as Michael, clear as day, ripped down the guaze wrapped around Dean's midsection to reveal his deep laceration, in which he rammed his whole arm into without hesitation.

"Adam, whatever's happening, listen to me, it's not real, okay?" Dean was talking as if Michael didn't have his entire forearm just underneath his skin, his arm tightly outlined underneath his brother's stretching skin, he felt he was going to be sick as he heard disgusting squelches and then loud cracks as the spectre broke through Dean's ribs and sternum, and slipping his arm out, it shone with Dean's dark red blood, and he was gripping tightly onto Dean's still-beating heart, but with each palpitation it was dying in his bloody hand...

"No!" Adam screamed, gripping his face in his palms. "No, not Dean! _No_!" He screeched, tears pouring from his eyes as his chest heaved. "No! It's not real! My brothers got me out and they love me!"

Dean tried to grip his shoulders and his whole body flinched as he cringed away, trembling. "Adam, look at me! Addie, look into my eyes! This isn't real!"

"They don't love you, Adam. Your dad didn't either. Why do you think he didn't marry your mom? Why he only stopped by every few years? You _repulsed_ him, Adam. You were an accident, a living symbol of his unfaithfulness to his dead wife. He stayed away because you sickened him."

Adam felt his heart squeeze painfully in his chest. "He did that to protect me!" He screamed, curling into a little ball as his body shook with sobs.

"He did that because you're just a bastard child resulting from his heartache with his first dead wife. Your mom was nothing but a one night stand and a whore, Adam!"

"They got me out and they love me. They got me out...they got me out..." He curled into a small ball and rocked back and forth, sobbing, in his own little world as Dean's shakes, touch and voice went completely unnoticed. "Adam! Look at me, I'm real, I'm right here!"

"You were a burden to your mother. Now you're a burden to them. They secretly wish it was just the two of them again. They don't want you. No one has ever wanted you. Your mom was _so_ close to aborting you... you're just a miserable waste of space, Adam." It was all his insecurities rolled into one. He cringed away from Dean's touch, his skinny ribcage flaring in and out, he pulled himself into a corner of the room, shrinking back and pressing into the wall, covering his face as his body racked with sobs.

"No, no, he's lying...We're all we've got...they got me out...they love me..."

TBC..


	14. Baba Yaga

Adam that felt his head was resting on something, and his heart hurt so bad he wished he could just chop it off; it felt like his brain was expanding and pushing hard on his skull. He heard faint noises, but they sounded like he was underwater.

"No, godammit Cas, I need you to look at me. _Now_," He heard his brother's angry voice say, he sounded raving mad. Adam remebered with a jolt and started to panic- Dean's dying heart in Michael's bloody hand. He began to squirm, feeling an irrational and overwhelming amount of panic override him.

"Hey, hey. Adam? It's okay. I'm here." Sam fired off, and Adam felt strong, big arms begin to squeeze him into a hug, but it felt more like they were constricting instead of comforting this time.

"Dean...Dean...he killed him, I watched, he ripped his heart out-right out of his chest!" He sobbed, and Sam's arms folded even tighter against his back. "Shhh. Sh, Adam, we're going to find a way to fix this."

"_Dean_!" Adam cried out again, his thin body trembling in Sam's arms. Sam hugged him tightly; he had gotten so thin, he felt his ribs through his back right up next to the skin.

"I'm right here. Addie, I'm right here, you saved me, remember?" He surged from the corner and gently put his hand on Adam's cheek. The teenager closed his eyes and began sobbing into Sam's chest, and Sam looked up to Dean with the puppy-doggiest expression he'd ever seen on his face. "I wanted to be a good big brother, Dean, and I-"

Suddenly, Dean got extremely angry as Cas was coming up to the three of them. "Cas, _no_. Stay away from him!" Dean demanded, planting his hand on his chest firmly and holding him back.

"Did nothing I just explained resonate with you? His angel part is gone, Dean. And that was the only thing keeping it away. I am an angel, I can take it in and I will be able to recover! Just like with Sam!"

"No." Dean growled, narrowing his eyes and almost shoving him back. Castiel had a hurt expression at first, but then he started to look extremely angry.

"He is a Demiseraph of my blood, and that means he is part of my responsibilty now!" He said in a low voice, trying to push past Dean, who would have none of it.

"I won't let you do that to yourself, Cas! You're like my brother, and I don't want you to get hurt again. The answer is no."

"I am not your brother. Adam is, and I can help him."

"We're finding another way. End of discussion."

Cas frowned and looked towards the floor, clearly unhappy with the decision. Adam closed his eyes and gripped tightly onto Sam's shoulders. "Dean? Is it really you?" He whispered, child-like.

"I'm right here. Tell me what you saw." He said gently, contrasting with his harsh tone when he'd been talking with Cas.

"I saw him kill you. He ripped out your heart-" Sam gripped the back of his head and pressed it close as he hiccuped with another sob.

"Who? Lucifer?"

The kid refused to answer. A few seconds went by; Sam looked heartbroken as he tried to comfort him, stroking his hair and shutting his eyes. Adam's stomach growled loudly.

"He needs food. The kid probably doesn't weigh more than a hundred pounds." Dean insisted in a very big-brotherly type of voice. He crouched down and looked Adam right in the eyes, which were looking a little cloudy even now.

"Hey. Listen, do you see him right now?" He asked, searching his baby brother's face. He looked so much older than he really was; dried tears caked his cheeks with a salty residue, his eyes looked dull and had cresent swatches of purlish-green under them. His skin looked paler and his cheeks were less full than they should have been. He blinked heavily, and finally shook his head.

"Give me your arm," He asked, and Adam obeyed with complete trust as Dean pressed his lips into a frown and dug the sharp blade of Hell's Dagger into the pale skin on his wrist. "I'm sorry, but this will help. I promise." Adam's eyes already looked sharper, turning more acute from the pain. "Dean, Sam, I'm sorry." He said in a small voice, averting his eyes which were beginning to shine with a glaze of tears.

"C'mon. You need food in that belly, Adam." He made no jokes about being a skinny-bones this time, and Adam knew that meant it was serious. Strangely, he felt heavier than before; with his last piece of grace that was barely keeping him sane gone, he felt Michael's brooding presence crushing him like a two-ton weight on his shoulders.

...

"Sleep, okay?" Dean just caught himself before he said "while you can". He looked at Adam's haunted face as he gently tucked him in to bed. Without him, he wouldn't even be alive right now. And now, the suffering they thought they'd avoided was here and full-blown. The blonde kid nodded wordlessly, frowning and looking up to Dean with sapphire-blue eyes that were beginning to fill with tears again. "We'll have a nice, healthy breakfast for you when you wake up. We need to get some meat on those bones, I mean it this time." He nodded silently again, shutting his eyes this time. "Good night, Addie. Love you." He ruffed his hair gently, padded from the room and quietly shut the door.

_He's lying. _This time the thought was self-generated, stemming from the painful, malignant seed Michael had planted in him earlier. _Burden, burden, burden._

No one chose to sleep with Adam, they figured it would be better to let him try and heal and give him some space. Adam was greatful; his plan would be much easier to carry out now.

He slipped quietly out of bed at around 3:30 am, and pulled on a pair of jeans, a fresh cotton tee shirt, and threw a few extra clothes into a backpack that he left half-open as he snuck into the kitchen, straining to see in the dark as he pulled open the cupboards and stuffed a loaf of bread into the backpack, as well as a triangle of brie, water bottles, and a bag of jerky. _Burden, Burden, burden. _He was almost half-expecting someone to come and stop him, but no one did. He slipped out the front door quiet as a cat, crunching off into the chilly early morning with nothing but his shadow by his side.

_They'll probably be laughing for joy when they realize you're gone. They don't want you. No one has wanted you. _Adam blew out an angry huff and picked up the pace, feeling his anger put a little spring in his step as he pushed on, walking through the forests, that way they wouldn't be able to trace him.

Unwanted. Unwanted. The rythmic crunching of his footsteps seemed to be chanting. Acc-i-dent. Acc-i-dent.

At first his journey had been nice; the cold air kept him on edge and alert like pain did, and he tried to think of anything but Michael as he tried to clear his head. He knew it wouldn't be long before the spectre showed his face again.

Around ten am was when he decided to take his first break, sitting down on a gnarled tree root as he went to dig out some of the food he'd packed; he was starving. He took out two pieces of bread and the triangle of cheese, breaking off peices to make a little sandwich, when he shreiked and threw the cheese away. It had been crawling with maggots, blending in with the white from before.

"Hey, you miss me?"

He didn't look as he collected his things once again and tucked the sandwich away, but leaving the cheese on the ground.

"I payed a visit to the family. Sam saw that you had left and he _smiled_, Adam."

The teenager spun around and dug his thumb deep onto the skin of his cut. "You're not real!" He shrieked as the vision quickly flickered away. He gripped tightly to the straps of his bag, and he began sprinting through the forest.

His legs and lungs screamed for him to stop, but he kept pushing onward, even when the tough fabric on his jeans began chaffing painfully. Everything suddenly seemed too bright, his ears were ringing, black stars popped in his eyes. He had eaten barely anything in the past week, and had forgotten to drink water. He felt his balance begin to sway, and suddenly he crumpled to the ground.

...

"Adam?! Adam, where the hell are you, bud?" Dean was bellowing throughout the house, feeling panic flutter into his stomach. This couldn't be happening, not now.

"His backpack is gone, and the bread, and the front door was unlocked." Sam said, his face falling as he ran a hand down his face. "He ran away. Dean, he ran away."

"Why would he do that, dammit! Where the hell could he have gone?!" He yelled, tears coming through his voice. Why? They were going to help him, things were going to be okay...

"He couldn't have gone far. C'mon, we've got to find him, before someone else does."

"Or something." Dean shuddered. There was no telling what could get at Adam in the big, bad world... and their Winchester blood just seemed to attract bad luck like mosquitos.

...

The smell of delicious soup wafted into his nose. At first Adam smiled at the pleasant smell, but then shot up in bed. Where was he? He looked around; he was inside some stranger's home, it had wooden walls and floors and had tapestries everywhere. He gasped when he saw the person; a little old lady, cloaked in fabrics like a shawl, and she was humming and sweeping the floor. She instantly looked up and smiled; her teeth were crooked and yellowed.

"Oh, gud. Yer up." She spoke in a strong Russian accent, and Adam felt panic flare in his chest as she came closer and breathed deeply, as if she were _smelling_ him. "You've got the gud Russian scent, yes? Good strong boy." His breathing began to pick up. What was this place? Who was this woman?

"Please, call me grandma, or _babushka_." She said, and he cringed away as she tried to touch him. She saw his small forearm and frowned. "Skinny, skinnny. That will not do. Soup?" His stomach growled, and he tried to cover up the sound with his hands. He just now realized how stupid running away had been; he needed his brothers. Who the hell was this lady, anyway? He'd passed out in the middle of the damn forest!

He gasped and struggled to get up when he saw the strangest part of the whole cottage. There, in the two corners of the front of the house, sat two nubs of yellow skin, and it was goose-pimpled. He tore out of the bed when he saw what they were; the nubs led to the outside, where two gigantic chicken legs were lying among the dead leaves, like the house had just decided to pop a squat in the middle of the forest.

He bolted for the door, only to have the old woman move with inhuman quickness and block his path. "Where are you going? You have not eaten yet!" He tried to shove her aside, but instead found himself on the floor, his shins burning from where she'd knocked his legs out from under him with her broom.

"Only a quarter Russian, and so _skinny_..but I'm so hungry, and I suppose it will have to do." She licked her lips and started coming closer, her teeth suddenly looked sharper and her fingernails more claw-like. Adam began scooting away on the floor, little whimpers involuntarily escaping his throat.

"Hey, bitch!"

Suddenly, the woman collapsed just next to Adam, and he saw Dean, his smoking gun outstretched, his eyes narrowed. Sam looked extremely relieved they'd gotten to him on time. "Adam!" He cried out, rushing forward and throwing open the door.

"Get out, now. Come on, we have to go!" He ordered, grabbing him by the arm and quickly pulling him up from the floor and leading him out the door.

"Sam, what is this place?" He asked, and he felt the ground shaking violently as they were able to get out of the door just in time as the tiny shack of a house shot up twenty feet, stilted on skinny, yellow chicken legs. "What the _hell_?!"

"Baba Yaga!" He said with wide eyes, pushing Adam protectively in front of him as the house took its first gigantic step. "What damn language is that swear word in, Sam?" Dean asked, cocking his gun and aiming for one of the yellow trunks holding up the house.

"Baba friggin' Yaga, Dean! The Russian witch with the walking house!" He explained, frusterated. "Did you read _any_ of the books Bobby gave you?"

His expression clearly stated 'touché', but it quickly fell into surprise as the house seemed to get its footing and took an other step towards them. "Shit!" He fired, but the bullet didn't do much to the thick yellow leg. Sam quickly fired his shotgun, and got a smiliar reaction.

"Okay, Plan B. _Run_!"

Sam protectively grabbed onto Adam's upper arm as they began running away, the kid was still tired and falling behind as his head throbbed with every pound of his heart as loud cruching of leaves and snaps of branches could be heard from behind them as he pushed himself to run faster, his lungs pumping in and out painfully.

Suddenly, mid-leap the three tumbled into a living room with a feeling in Adam's stomach like that moment he missed a step on a staircase.

"Hello," Cas said meekly, and made a point to keep away from Adam as Dean had ordered him to.

"Jesus, Cas, where would we be without you?" Dean laughed, trying to slow down his breathing.

"Probably trampled." He replied simply. Sam scoffed happily and was helping the pale-faced Adam to his feet. He looked at him happily for a second, before looking angry again.

"Why the hell did you walk out on us, Adam? That was really dangerous and dumb!" He scolded, and Adam turned away.

"He feels he is a burden." Castiel spoke up for him, he sounded sad as he spoke Adam's deepest thoughts aloud. "Because he was an unexpected child born out of wedlock, he believes he is an unwanted accident."

Sam and Dean exchanged sympatheic glances. "Adam..." Dean started.

Cas suddenly looked angry as he narrowed his eyes. "Those are the things Michael has been torturing him by saying." Both of the brother's eyebrows flew up in surprise.

"_Michael_?-"

Cas quickly interrupted them again. "Can't you see? He loves his family more than anything. His deepest desire was to have grown up with you, and now Michael tortures him by saying you don't love him or want him. _I_ raised this soul from hell, and he is of my blood. It is my duty to help him, Dean, as your and my brother both." He quickly fired off, his voice getting more threatening and almost rumbling towards the end.

"Cas, I can't have you destroy yourself again." Dean insisted. He didn't know what the hell he was supposed to do in this situation.

"I have found another way. But it's not going to be easy."

Dean frowned and tucked his gun away. "When is it ever?" He felt his heart give a squeeze as he saw Sam with Adam hugged tightly to his chest, his face buried in his clothes and he held the back of his head close.

"We're a family now, Adam. We don't want you to leave." Sam said quietly, his eyes softening with compassion.

"And never go into the forests alone. Creepy crap lives in there, Addie." He somewhat scolded, coming over and rubbing his back. "Never run away or I'll kill you to death." He said affectionately, and Adam finally smiled just a tiny bit. Maybe he wasn't unwanted. Maybe these two really did want him around. And according to his deepest desires and fears, that's all he ever really wanted.

* * *

** I hope you enjoyed the folklore haha. I like to sometimes go in a more light hearted direction but still keep the plot. It's very fun for me to recreate the legends that I remember from bedtime stories as a kid :) Are any of my readers familiar with these stories? If you have any other cool monsters that haven't been seen on the show like these feel free to suggest! Everything except for the Dream Weavers so far are 'real' legends :P **

**Please review if you're reading and would like more :D**


	15. Brother, Brother

Adam was tucked into bed by both Dean and Sam that night, who looked on with concerned eyes almost like they thought he was going to scramble up and bolt out the door at any second. Adam blinked wearily at them; he understood they were concerned, but he wasn't used to having anyone care for him at this extent before. Of course he always had his mom, but she had always been working and he'd more often then not make his own dinner and tuck himself into bed, even when he was as young as eight. So now, to have two people watching his back, caring for him, protecting him...it was almost overwhelming.

"I'm not going to run away again, guys." He said wearily. "I think I learned my lesson." He pretended like he wanted them to leave, but in reality he wanted them to stay here.

"Yeah, Adam. You should have known from all those horror movies that the woods are a nightmare's best friend." Dean scolded only slightly, sliding up next to him and roughing his hair. Adam felt his arm as if it were being pulled by a puppet string move right to Dean's still-wrapped abdomen, but when he noticed what he was doing he flushed pink and quickly jerked away. "Sorry. I don't know why I did that." He said in a low voice, embarrassed.

"Hey, it's okay. As long as you're comfortable and can sleep." Dean said back kindly, and Adam exhaustedly closed his eyes after a long day and sighed, speaking up for the last time only quietly. "Thank you for coming after me. For rescuing me from that witch."

"Stop being a shithead, Adam. Of course we'd get you. I don't want to hear any more thank you's like that again, capeesh?" Dean shot back, but he was smiling just slightly. Adam nodded, his arm sliding up to Dean's wrapped wound again, and he dropped quickly off to sleep.

It wasn't long before Cas came into the room again, fluttering softly and staring down at Adam and Dean on the bed, and then to Sam who sat in an armchair closeby.

"Alright, Cas. Fill us in, how do you cure him?" Dean spoke up anxiously, needing to hear an answer, and soon. He didn't know how much longer he could go through another brother's torturous downward spiral.

"I-I have been thinking nonstop. It is not guaranteed, but I think it would be the best option as of now. It would be relatively painless, shorter than most...a lot of work on my part, however. But I will be able to manage it."

"Manage _what_, Cas?" Sam asked, coming up closer and sitting on the edge of the bed. The dark-haired angel looked at the ground in deep thought, finally flicking his eyes to look back up at them.

"I have to possess him." He said simply, unwavering in his tone.

"You have to.. Cas, what the hell are you taking about?" Dean quipped back, confusion clearly on his face. Why in the world would he do that?

"It has been done before, though rarely. The Encoding, Stripping, and Reiteration process. There may be a few obstacles- I belive I have figured out a way." He lowered his eyes again in thought, pressing his lips together as he pondered.

"Okay, Cas...Jesus, I need you to not be vague on this. Encoding, Stripping, Reiteration ... It sounds like you're working a computer program, hitting up the Gentlemen's Club and then talking about what happened." Dean replied, making sure to be more quiet than usual so that he wouldn't wake Adam. But he was sleeping like a log, anyway.

"Unlike with Sam, his soul is not tainted by the residue his host left behind, because Michael was not evil. It's only his mind that is marred-" Cas began, but was quickly interrupted by Dean.

"Why has it been Michael anyway, Cas?" He asked, and looked over at the sleeping face and gently pushed his hair off his forehead. "This is such a fucking mess."

"Similar to Sam, it's not_ really_ the archangel who is haunting him. The Michael he sees is simply his own abused mind hurting himself, the manifestation happening to be the angel who possessed him." He looked at Adam with an intent stare and continued. "I must possess him in order to Encode the whole of his brain, all his memories, motor skills, processing...I can save the information into one of the relatively free of space heads of mine. Then-"

Sam interrupted this time, and the angel looked irritated as he closed his lips. " What do you mean heads? You have...more than one?" Sam asked curiously, his eyebrows coming together slightly.

"Multiple. Three, to be precise, existing in my true form. They are a Raven, Arctic Leopard and Stag. One of them has not had the memory space filled- I can copy Adam's mind to my own as I possess his body-"

"You have _three heads? _Dude, I'm sorry, but that's friggin..._weird." _Dean spoke up bluntly, and he immediately came under the sharp gaze of a very irritated man. He somewhat rolled his eyes and continued with a huff. "There is a small issue. His body is not my true vessel, and much like Lucifer's incorrect vessel began to dilapidate, so will his. Once I copy the information, I must revert back into Jimmy to avoid hurting him in staying for too long. But then there is the issue of his mind deteriorating further as I work to sift through his memories and cut out the rotten parts that are affecting the rest of his mind."

"So, we can't have Adam start to rot to death _or_ keep getting worse, right? So what should we do?" Dean asked, and he was not expecting the answer.

"As I work through his mind and carve out the malicious memories...he must be in a state were no new memories can be permanently formed. Preferably the undeveloped brain of an infant."

Sam and Dean perked up right away. "So you're saying you'll turn Adam into a _baby_?" Dean asked in disbelief, almost a bit too loudly as his little brother groaned softly and repositioned.

"Only until I have sorted through the information and can project it back to his mind. At most the duration would be a month, optimistically one week."

Dean turned away from Cas and looked instead to Adam. "So after you've edited it, you'll put it back? And he'll be the right age again?" Cas nodded. "If this doesn't work...I deeply apologize, but I don't know any other way."

The room suddenly got a bit tenser as everyone grew very quiet. This had to work, it just _had_ to. Adam repositioned, nuzzling onto his eldest brother's shoulder as his fingers resting on top of the gauze twitched ever so slightly. Dean spoke up again, extremely quietly. "Why does he need to do that?"

"He's grieving." Cas answered softly, looking down with almost a big-brotherly expression on his own face. "I believed that he would keep the small piece, in turn keeping him sane. The Demiseraphs from BC times, the ones who survived, kept the small pieces left inside themselves- first decedents of psychics today. I did not foresee that he would rid of it."

Dean smoothed down the hair by the back of his neck, almost an appreciative gesture. "He's a damn good kid. Please...just, do what you have to do, okay? I want him to be okay. No, I _need_ him to be okay." He pulled the kid closer, he felt his chest expanding and puffing up with how much he cared for him. He'd saved Dean with that little piece, he would have no doubt died with that deep of a stab wound, and not to mention there was some strange enchantment on the knife on top of everything else. "Will it...will it hurt him when you, uh, you know, get up in there?" He asked awkwardly. He didn't know if possessing people was a touchy subject for angels.

The man looked conflicted as his eyes narrowed, looking off to the side. "It might be uncomfortable at first, because I am not his host and he is not my true vessel. But I will prevent as much discomfort as possible. I promise." Dean sighed and ran his hand down his face, finally taking his hand away and looking deep into the blue eyes of his best friend.

"Just...take care of my baby brother, alright?" He said quietly. Cas nodded, and he reached out and put his hand softly on his shoulder, completely wordlessly. Dean then began to gently shake the teenager awake, and he folded his light blue eyes open exhaustedly. "What's going on?" He asked in a tired voice, rubbing his eyes with his fists.

"Adam, we need you to answer a question for Cas, okay? We're going to help you." Dean said, and Adam nodded, blinking up expectantly at the dark-haired man. Dean's eyebrows pulled together slightly, he didn't exactly have doubts, but...he trusted Cas, of course he did. But so far, _everything _involving angels and possessions had gone wayward for them. He felt a little sick feeling at the bottom of his stomach.

"Adam John Milligan, will you formally allow me, Castiel, Angel of the Lord, to utilize your humanly body as my vessel?" He asked in low tones, narrowing his eyebrows over his eyes as he prepared to make the jump from Jimmy's body to the teenager's. Adam suddenly looked distrustful, pressing his lips together and shying toward Dean unconsciously. His eyes flitted in panic to both Sam and Dean's faces, he was trying to understand.

"I...what's going on?" He repeated, bringing his arms in and hugging his stomach, a sweat beginning to break out on his foreheads and cheeks. Dean put his hand on his shoulder to reassure him, and the kid slightly flinched, but then immediately looked guilty.

"This is going to cure me?" He asked timidly, wringing his hands together.

"It's looks like this is the only thing we can do, Adam." Sam answered him, putting his hand on his shoulder as well. "Do you trust us, Addie?" Dean added quietly, and the kid's eyebrows drew together and his eyes got a slight sheen of water to them as he looked conflicted. "...with everything." He answered quietly.

He lifted his eyes to Cas, biting his lips still. "Yes."

...

Dean went to go sleep on the couch that night, he'd stayed up until around twelve thirty watching meaningless television and sipping a bottle of beer, he'd hadn't been able to sleep right away like Sam had. He had too many worries swirling around in his head, he was too antsy to close his eyes and lay still. He finally did pass out simply from pure exhaustion that had nothing to do with peace of mind, his beer cradled in his arms gingerly.

He woke up in the middle of the night when he heard a small bump in the night, he gasped as he instinctively grabbed his gun from the holder and steadied it into the dark with one swift motion. He sighed in relief when he only saw Adam staring out at him from the dark. The teenager had a_ very_ Cas-like expression on his face, his light blue eyes were narrowed and his eyebrows brought together, as he tipped his head to the side slightly. Dean clinked his beer down on the table and pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers. "Jesus, Ad-_Cas_, what have I told you about watching me?"

"I'm sorry. I did not intend to wake you." It was Adam's voice, only a pitch lower and extremely formal, nothing that would have come from his lips before. Dean sighed tiredly and rubbed his eyes, deciding that he'd at least talk to the angel until he asked for him to leave so he could get some sleep without the feeling of eyes boring into him. "How the uh, copying process going?"

"Well. Adam is being very compliant. I should be able to transcribe the information into my own mind within a few days. It would have been shorter, seventeen years is a blink of an eye, but he has hundreds of years in hell he's experienced on top of that."

"Okay, good. That's good." Dean couldn't bring himself to look his little brother, or well, Cas now, in the eyes. It was just too mind boggling to even comprehend that it was Cas behind his little brother's sapphire eyes, Cas's grace controlling his lips and his vocal chords as he spoke.

"I understand, Dean. I will try to avoid you until the transcribing process is complete." Dean finally met his eyes, it was strange how his little brother had all of Cas's exact mannerisms, the way he was sitting completely rigid, his peircing gaze, his slightly confused expression. "Hey, it's...um, it's okay. It's just a little bizarre, is all." If he was going to be talking to him like this, he might as well get into the things he really wanted to know about. "Is Adam okay in there? Jimmy had said something about feeling like he was strapped to a comet-"

"He only experienced that sensation when I flew. I will not be doing any flying with Adam, not if I can help it. He's asleep at the moment. He seems to be a very heavy sleeper." Cas then smiled slightly, looking off to the side. "He reminds me very much of you. You should be proud to have him as family."

Dean grinned back, looking down and breaking eye contact. "Yeah. I guess I am."

Cas spoke up again, more somber and quiet this time. "It's very interesting, his thought process. He has a very dubious mindset, Dean. Although you and Sam have proved yourselves to him numerous times...he still believes that you do not love him as much as he loves you."

Dean felt the words like a physical blow, he wanted to speak up and contradict the statement, but he felt speechless. He didn't know what he could do or say to prove to his little brother that he was truly part of the family, and not a burden or unwanted.

"Not that I wouldn't know what that's like." Cas added bitterly, in such a quiet voice that Dean could barely even pick out his words, he for a second doubted if he'd even heard him speak up at all.

"What?" Dean said loudly, he wasn't sure if he'd really said what he'd thought he'd said.

"Huh, what?" Cas/Adam quickly shot back, cocking his head to the side. A slight flush was creeping onto his cheeks, but Dean didn't know if he was only imagining it.

"Um, look, A-Cas, I've gotta catch a few winks, okay? Mind if you...er...don't..watch me?" He asked, hoping he didn't sound too rude as he said this. The light-haired teenager nodded curtly and swiftly stood up. "I will see you in the morning." He got up and began to wordlessly walk away. Dean felt a little bad ending their conversation like that. And what had Cas even meant by that? That he knew what that was like? What _what_ was like, loving someone and not thinking they'd ever love them as much back?

"Uh, Cas...G'night." Dean said uncomfortably, twisting his head to look behind the couch as Adam's innocent face, illuminated in the soft moonlight, stared back at him with a forlorn expression. "Yes. Goodnight, Dean." He replied simply, turning around jerkily and walking awkwardly into the next room, where he just seemed to stand a few feet from the doorway, just waiting. _Oh, Cas. _He'd never change, no matter what body he wore.

* * *

**I wanted to thank everyone who has reviewed and favorited/followed since I'd started writing this story again! I am trying to find the motivation to finish this, and I SERIOUSLY appreciate any encouragement! Without that I probably wouldn't have kept it up, so thank you loads! Next chapter is going to be all about de-aged Adam, and probably shamelessly cute. I am also going to throw in another interesting monster that I have loved the concept of for a long time, the Japanese river monster the Kappa :) More information the 4 blades to come as well! Stay tuned, and while your at it, please review ;D **


	16. Hang In There, Baby

Adam felt like he was floating as he was waking up, but it was the strangest sensation. It was like his mind was waking up but his body just didn't come along with it. He rose to consciousness as he realized that he was standing, his eyes were already open and watching Dean as he flipped through channels on the television. Adam began to panic slightly, it was hard to remember what had happened before he fell asleep.

"Cas, why don't you just sit down instead of standing there? Loosen up, man." Dean said lightheartedly, finally ending on a Animal Planet program about cats. "Heh, bet you'd like this one, Cas."

Adam felt like whimpering as his lips began to move, his throat beginning to hum, but it wasn't him. "Adam is awake. I am neither shoving him down nor repressing any of my own thoughts. I should go elsewhere as not to overwhelm him."

_Cas. Cas? _Adam cried out timidly. _Please, no distractions. I don't like this. _

"Dean-I have to encode as quickly as possible. He's afraid seeing me talk to you-"

"Adam? He's okay in there, right?" Dean quickly asked, bright concern shining in his eyes. "Hang in there, baby brother. Cas is going to take care of everything, okay?"

Adam and Cas's sudden feelings of love for Dean sprung up and mixed together, both emotions equally potent.

_Cas...whoa_. Adam thought, feeling amazed. He never knew...

_Nothing. You say __**nothing**__ to him, understand_? Cas growled back at him, and their hand curled into a slight fist. _It would only complicate things. This is none of your concern._

_Sheesh. Cas, why don't you just tell him? _Adam piped up quietly, but was ignored by the angel who was sharing his body. They began to move, and stood by the couch next to Dean.

"Hey, Adam." Dean said happily, and his eyes swept over his body. "Cas, he's looking way healthier. Like, _way_ better." He smiled and reached out, touching Adam's arm, but Cas was the one who stole the shared sensation away.

"I have simultaneously been working to try and restore muscle tone and strength in the body." Cas explained calmly. Dean grinned and cracked a joke, pointed at Adam. "Hey, skinny-bones, why go to the gym when you can just have an angel possess you?" He chuckled, looking lovingly into Adam's eyes. "You gonna give him a six-pack, Cas? I think he'd like that."

_Tell him to shut the hell up_. Adam was smiling internally, he knew his brother would never put him in danger and that calmed him down greatly.

"Adam wants you to not talk anymore."

Adam felt like rolling his eyes. _Dammit, Cas._

"Why? Is it uncomfortable for him to address both of you or something?" Dean suddenly got very serious._ Cas, fix this_! Adam prompted irritably.

"S-Shut the hell up." Cas sputtered uncomfortably. Dean looked like he was ready to burst out laughing. "I apologize. That was distasteful." Dean looked away and cough-laughed into his hand before sharply intaking a breath and looking at him again.

"So, how's the copying going along? Like, percentages or something?"

Cas pressed his lips together. "I should be done by nightfall tonight." He announced simply. "I seem to be working more efficiently than I first believed I would."

"_Good_! That's good, right?" He said happily, surprised at the progress. "I guess that means baby Adam will be here by tommorow, right?"

_Baby...Cas, what the hell is he talking about? _Adam asked, feeling extremely confused.

"We need to turn you into an infant so that your mind can be preserved with no memories and so no new ones form." Cas accidently said aloud, which got him a strange look from Dean. "You talking to him right now?"

_You won't remember anything. Don't fret, Adam. This will all be over in what would seem like a day for you_. Cas told him, and Adam felt a litle embarrassed that they'd have to care for him even more than usual as a baby.

"Cas, for the last time, just come sit down, alright?" Dean prompted, patting the seat next to him. "Just relax. It'll help."

Their body hesitated, but finally he sat down next to Dean slowly, and their shared heart began to patter just a little faster. Adam understood now-he didn't want to sit next to Dean, because Adam would see everything in his head.

_Jesus, Cas._ Adam said quietly, more kindly than before. _I_ _never would have guessed. _

Castiel ignored him, and instead sat back and closed his eyes on the couch, resting his hands on his stomach. "Dean, this is expending much of my energy." He admitted, sighing softly. Adam felt irked that the guy wasn't opening up to him-they were sharing a body, for God's sake. He knew he'd be able to get it out of him sooner or later.

"Oh, shit! Cas, have you seen this?" Dean quickly shot out, and gently stroked Adam's forehead. He saw just the beginning of peeling skin, the start of a sore with just a little angry pink showing through the layers of flaky skin. "I didn't know this was going to happen this quickly." He added, sounding afraid.

"Hey, Adam? I'm talking to you, okay? Everything's going to be fine." Dean had gently placed his hand on top of Adam's smooth forehead and was pushing his light hair from his forehead, as his eyes stayed closed. "Me and Cas and Sammy'll take care of you. I promise." He gently smoothed his hair from his forehead again. Adam felt the strangest sensation; almost like a variation of a purr from Cas's occupying grace. On top of that, the angel was stealing away all of the touch-Adam wasn't even aware that Dean was doing that.

"Rest here, kay? I'm picking up some lunch. Hang in there, buddy." The eyelids stayed shut as they heard the footfalls slowly recede away. Cas was still purring, or whatever the hell it would be called when angels did it, and Adam felt just a slightly happy feeling in his chest, but it was leaning more towards contentedness.

_Cas_. Adam said pointedly, and their face pulled into a tiny frown as Cas ignored him again, the humming cutting off as they began leaning back further into the cushions. _CAS_. He tried again, and the man sighed quietly.

_I find it's best to pretend I don't._ He replied finally, and Adam felt a little sad all the sudden. _Better for him, better for me. I never asked to fall for a human, Adam. Do you know how disgraceful that is for me in heaven? How disgusting my brothers and sisters would find me? They call humans mudmonkeys and hairless apes. They believe we are superior to them in every way. _Suddenly, his emotion turned from heavily despair to slight happiness, as he paused slightly before continuing.

_We are not. I've seen his soul, I pieced it back together. They are not inferior, we are made of the same substances, Adam. Our graces, your souls...one of them is just smaller. And Dean's...God, Dean's... _He paused again, this time Adam's chest puffed up greatly, and his cheeks got a little hot and tight._ The most beautiful soul I've ever seen. _

Adam was a little bit confused at first. He didn't even know that angels could feel like that_. Normally, we don't. I tried to deny it at first... _Cas sighed again and tears began to spring to his eyes. _Do not tell him. Do not tell anyone. This is not your business, understand?_

_I don't think he'd think it's weird that you're an angel and he's human. _Adam tried to reassure him._ More like because you're, well, you're a guy. If you, you know, maybe took a girl vessel? _

_Jimmy is my only match in this decade. _He said back bluntly, extremely sour undertones in his voice.

_Hey, if you just _told_ him...I don't know. If it's only about souls, I mean, maybe..._

Cas ignored that comment, maybe because he found that extremely small compared to the bigger picture. Adam wanted to speak up again, maybe console him just a little bit, but Cas spoke up before he could. _No. I will not do anything, Adam, I will not pursue anything. Don't try to convince me otherwise. Our species simply don't mix. _He quickly ended the conversation. There was a beat of sad silence, and Adam couldn't help but feel bad for the guy. He only loved his _soul_, for God's sake. It was just so...innocent.

_What was that..purring or whatever? _Adam asked, smiling to himself. It was kind of cute how much happiness emitted from Cas's grace when Dean was near.

"I was not _purring_." He said aloud accidently, a flush crawling onto his cheeks. _I was singing. It's not the same. _

Adam laughed to himself. It sure looked like the same thing. _You angels sure are weird. _

_J__ust go back to sleep, you assbutt. _Cas quipped back irritably.

_Last time you called me that you threw a molotov cocktail at me, so I would stay away from that word if I were you._ Adam laughed. He liked Cas a lot, and he couldn't help but look up to him and think of his like another family member, another brother. He just hoped nothing bad would happen concerning what he'd just found out. What if they did get together? Then his brothers would be dating each other...weird. _  
_

_I'm the first person you've told that to, huh? _He asked quietly. At first he thought the angel wasn't going to answer him, but he finally did, just a whisper of the word.

_Yes_.

There was silence for a second as their lungs simply expanded to the fullest and they sighed deeply. _We should get in proximity to my true vessel. That way, I can jump over and revert your body to a younger age as well, as soon as I've finished._ He changed the subject quickly, and their legs worked to stand up. "Dean, I will be in the bedroom next to Jimmy." He called out, and got a quick, full-mouthed grunt of aprroval from the kitchen from Dean.

_I'm going to be back, right? I'm not going to stay a baby forever, yeah?_ He asked timidly. That would be like dying; with his mind wiped clean, starting over? He already had enough of an age gap with his brothers, over ten years.

_Yes, I will project the edited memories back. Your time as an infant with a cleared mind will seem like nothing. _Adam trusted him, but he couldnt help but feel anxious. He wasnt used to whole heartedly just letting someone else make all the decisions for him.

They slipped onto the bed next to the heavily sleeping Jimmy, Cas explained that because of his numerous deaths and reserections Jimmy was already in heaven- the body was nothing but a vegetable now. Adam suddenly felt very tired again, and he began to feel te effects of the mismatched grace- a spot on his forehead was itchy and burning hot.

_Tell me about Dean's soul, Cas._ He said sleepily, looking at the face of Jimmy as Cas controlled their eyes. _Why is it so perfect?_

Cas seemed to perk up, something about that statement had irritated him. _No, Adam. Not perfect. His soul is imperfect in many ways, more imperfect than not._

_Then what makes it so beautiful to you? I want to know why... and how._

_It is imperfect, but that is most of the reason why it is beautiful. I have never seen that amount of selflessness packed into one soul, it is almost a fluke. And his righteousness, and love for others, determination... _Adam's lips pulled into a smile, but then it fell again immediately._ As for how... and what I plan to do... _He went quiet again._ I apologize. I cannot converse about this anymore._

_Cas, shit man, I didn't mean to make you feel bad. _

He was ignored once again. He felt extremely guilty, Cas was doing all of this for him and he turned around and made him hurt. And he'd never told anybody his secret before. Still, he was falling faster asleep as his forehead began to itch more and more.

_Good night, Adam. _Cas said unemotionally. _This will all be over soon._

_Hey. Cas, don't be like that. _Adam said back, but he was struggling to stay awake. _Maybe...just start small, okay? Talk to him a little more. Be nice. If you're feeling bold...I dunno, reach for his hand or something small like that. That's what I do if I like somebody and they don't know it. _

Adam felt like the stereotypical teenage gossip girl, but he wanted to help his friend out. And maybe it wasn't so hopeless- sure, Cas and Dean fought, but the way they sometimes glanced at each other...

Cas was contemplating for a second, but didn't reply_. Sleep now, Adam. _He finally repeated.

_G'night, Cas. And don't let my brothers do anything stupid to me when I'm a baby. _He laughed, Cas shut their eyes for him and he felt himself getting pulled into a deep sleep.

_..._

Sam woke up with a start, gasping and jerking back as the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes were a gigantic pair of innocent, sapphire-blue orbs staring curiously into his face, just centimeters away.

_"Ahh, haha! _Told you we'd get 'im, Addie!" Dean laughed, more happy than Dean had seen him in a long time. He pulled the round-faced baby into his chest, and Adam's shiny, pursed lips were slightly open as he blinked with huge baby-eyes into Sam's face. _  
_

"_Dean_...already?" Sam asked, blinking the sleep from his eyes and running his hand through his hair. "We haven't picked up any supplies yet. I thought it would be a few more days before he was done copying it over."

Dean looked like he was enjoying himself greatly as he bobbed up and down, and the baby turned to look at him instead with a puzzled look, bringing his chubby dimpled hand up to his mouth and absent-mindedly gnawing on his fist, shiny drool was everywhere. "Well, I guess we'll just get that done today." He rubbed the fluffy white-blonde hair, which sprung back in wisps. "Who's a pretty baby?" He cooed, smiling and wrinkling up his nose, moving his head slightly from side-to-side as he looked at him. "Ain't he cute, Sam?"

Adam's tiny chest suddenly bumped with a little hiccup, and white spit-up oozed down Dean's shoulder. Dean made a face and pulled the baby off his chest, holding him out to Sam by the armpits. "Ughh...gross."

Sam snorted with a laugh and took Adam into his arms instead, and Dean made disgusted noises and ripped his tee off. "You were saying?" Sam pitced him a perfect bitchface, laughing.

"Shut up, bitch!"

* * *

**Ahhhh, I know I didn't have Destiel in the beginning but I just love that it will take some time to work itself out, and I love writing relationships that take a little while to build. As of now, I will not establish it in this story, only put it on a track, (Please tell me why you think about it!) **

**Next chapter will be all Baby Adam and brotherly cuteness! Please review on this chap: what do you think about having Destiel in this story? I am a little on the fence myself, I will DEFINITELY take any and all reviews about it into consideration. Thanks! **

**Oh, and please answer! Would you prefer longer chapters with more waiting inbetween (like 5 to 7k) or short and frequent like I've been doing? I want to hear opinions, seriously ;) Bye for now, reader! **


	17. Play on Power

**Hello! Thank you so much everyone for your reviews! I've gone with an idea that I've had for a long time, and you'll see :) ! I like it better than continuing with Destiel and I've never seen it before. I'll have probably 1 more chap with baby Adam, and I'll return to my main plot with the blades and what Crowley's been up to soon. Thank you everyone for the support! I was amazed this many people are reading, and I love it ! Please leave a little review! What do you think of my twist? :) **

* * *

Sam and Dean both stared down at the ugly item in the baby's department in the Target, Dean's face was alight with amusement while Sam looked on with an unamused expression.

"Dude, no."

"Dude, _yes_."

Dean chuckled and gently patted the sleeping Adam's small back, he was draped over his shoulder with his cheek pressed to his shirt, already a small wet spot of drool had wicked into the cotton from Adam's agape lips that were smushed onto Dean's shoulder as he slept. Dean once again nodded to the horrific baby onesie. "Hey, the last time I tried to prank him it was just embarrassing. I gotta restore my pride, man! We gotta get him back!"

Sam picked up the onesie and examined it, looking extremely unamused. "Hey, what do you mean 'we'?" The onesie was made of light pink cotton, and it pulled around the bottom to snap on the back by the butt. It had an extremely ugly pink partial-tutu that rimmed the bottom half, completed by sequined-to-death block letters in bright pink, glimmering the words "SASSY DIVA". "God, why would anyone even think this was a good idea. Like, _ever_." He chuckled and rolled his eyes.

"Sam, hurry up! Let's get him in this, get the picture and bounce!" He urged, and Sam gave up and rolled his eyes, grabbing the atrocious piece of crap and pulling it off the hanger. "Fine. _One_ picture, Dean. So you better make it good." He handed the onesie to Dean and took out his phone, grinning and shaking his head. "This poor kid doesn't know what he's getting himself into, being in this family."

Dean was easily able to snap it onto the baby, who didn't wake up the whole time. "Kay, Sam! Take it!" He held Adam with one arm, making sure the "SASSY DIVA" in its entirety was showing, as he threw out a thumbs-up and was wearing his prize-winning cocky grin. The shutter sound went off and Dean helped to undress Adam. "I can't wait to show him. He's gonna flip a bitch." He chuckled, shouldering the baby again and rubbing his back, a smile plastered on his face. "Sorry, kid. But no one in the family escapes a prank from me. I think I'll get it blown up and make a poster for your room."

He chuckled and looked over to Cas, who was standing by the cart and inspecting some of the baby clothes with an extremely confused expression. He was back in his regular body, and Dean was glad for that. It was a little too weird when he was 'wearing' Adam, even if it was for just around a day. "Things okay over here, Cas?" Dean asked, he seemed to be in very good spirits today.

"If they are only infants, why do they need accessories such as headbands? It is pointless, if not uncomfortable for the child who is forced to wear it when they do not have enough hair to utilize a headband." He expressed, and narrowed his eyes as if he could see the reason clearer if he did.

"Humans can be pretty damn weird, Cas." Dean explained, smiling and rubbing down Adam's hair and then planting a little kiss on top of the smooth head. Both Sam and Dean had noticed he hadn't let either of them handle Adam for more than a few minutes- he was too attached to the baby form of him already, and it was also in part that Dean regretted that he had never grown up with Adam under his protection either, and he wanted to almost be that big brother now.

"Are we going to leave? I don't like this store very much. Many of these items are perplexing and I don't understand. What is the purpose of that?" He pointed to a box advertising a bright yellow rattle, as Dean began to push the cart with one hand.

"It's just a toy. Babies think it's fun."

"Why? It's function is to make noise. There are plenty other sources of noise."

Dean smiled. "Don't look too far into it, buddy. It's just humans being weird, kay?" Dean looked like he was stuggling slightly to maneuver the cart with one arm, but he didn't want to look like he was. Cas noticed, and spoke up quietly. "May I hold him?"

"Sure, Cas. Just, uh, just be really careful, okay? Hold his head and..." Sam, who was following behind, chuckled just a little at how protective he was being, like always. Cas had already taken the baby and expertly tucked him in his arms, and he hadn't woken up or even squirmed.

"Whoa, Cas. I didn't know you were so good with kids."

"I managed heaven's infirmary for a while. Close to two decades." He patted Adam's back as be placed him on his shoulder, and he burped loudly, and opened his eyes, just peeping over Cas's shoulder at Sam. "His stomach was hurting. He would have woken up crying if not attended to."

"You can read his mind? Even now?" Dean asked. That must be weird, he hadn't considered baby mind-reading was even possible.

"Yes. It's almost pleasureable, not much is complex, and there is much innocence and words don't complicate things. For example, right now..." Adam was still staring at Sam curiously, his eyes wide as a little bit of drool dribbled down his chin. "He thinks Sam's hair looks enjoyable to play with. He wishes he will come closer so he can grab it and see what it feels like."

"Geez. I guess it should be easier taking care of him with you around then, huh?" Dean was almost impressed as he lead the cart down to the next aisle. "What about baby angels? Are they like the same thing?"

"Innocence, yes. But right when they are born they already possess a higher level thought process above that of human's. But their underdeveloped bodies must be taken care of until they are fit to go into a garrison."

Somehow, this made Dean a little sad. "So do they ever get toys or anything, well, _nice_ before they have to hit the ground running?"

"They do not have...toys. Their caretakers are "nice". I was kind to every child while I was a caretaker." Cas then realized why he had seemed so sad. Angels didn't have childhoods and had to fight as soon as they were able, much like Dean had been forced to do. Cas shot him an apologetic glance, he hoped he understood.

Adam burbled and reached out to Sam, his uncordinated fingers opening and closing. "He still wishes to feel your hair." Cas announced aloud. Sam snorted. "Yeah, no way am I letting him just rip out a chunk that easy."

Adam then began bouncing, his sounds more whiny as Cas struggled to keep him in a tight grip. "He wants sleep. And food."

"He was literally sleeping just three minutes ago!" Dean exclaimed. Maybe they should take him back to a motel before he began wailing up a storm in here.

"Well, Dean, he wants to sleep again. But he wants food before he will sleep again. He wants something sweet. I think the thought is for his bottle."

"Okay, now I get why babies don't talk. They're pretty needy, huh?" Sam joked, and Cas suddenly felt embarrased for resaying all of Adam's simple thoughts. Dean noticed and quickly spoke up. "Hey, look, I appreciate you helping out, okay?"

"I apologize." Dean reached for Adam again and tried holding him close, bobbing up and down and holding the back of his head as the little whines were beginning to sound more like wails. "Shhh...there's nothing we can do, Addie, we haven't bought your bottle yet. Shh..."

Cas looked sad all the sudden, as he looked to Dean feverently trying to calm the baby. "Now he..he wants his mother."

"Oh." Dean replied, and a sour feeling in the pit of his stomach began to form. When Sam used to have fits like this when he was around the same age as well, six or seven months...he'd just wanted his mom too.

"The feeling will pass. Babies have short attention spans and short memories." Cas tried to reassure him, but it didn't really make Dean feel any better about it. "Let's just buy all this crap and get out of here," He said sadly, and both Cas and Sam felt bad at how his happy and joking mood had quickly evaporated from before. He reached up and let Adam wrap his tiny fingers around his pointer finger in his typically strong baby grip, and he kept a somewhat forlorn expression on his face.

When they finally got to the checkout, the woman behind the counter began cooing at the baby right away. "Oh, how precious!" She exclaimed, beaming as she scanned the first bundle of diapers. "It takes a village, doesn't it?" She pointed out the three men and no women aspect. "How old is he?"

Sam and Dean exchanged a panicked glance, but it was quickly resolved by Cas answering. "Six months, two weeks and five days old." He explained calmly and without hesitation. She raised her eyebrows at the completely correct answer. "You must be the lucky father, then?"

He was about to answer truthfully when Dean shot him a 'c'mon, Cas' type of glance. "...Yes?" He answered with a little bit too much uncertainty for Dean's comfort, but the woman didn't seem to notice. "Well, he's going to be a lady killer when he grows up, that's for sure. He's got those lovely little eyes."

"He will not murder women when he grows up. He was meant to kill the devil, and Lucifer is distinctly on the male side of the ambiguous gender spectrum for celestial beings." He only realized he'd said the wrong thing when the two men as well as the cashier stared him down.

The woman looked like she's seen a ghost, as she froze and failed to scan the next item. "..._excuse me_?"

Sam had to think on his feet for an intelligent-sounding explanation. "Sorry ma'am, our friend here has just been deinstitutionalized from the mental hospital for a mild episode of residual schizophrenia. That's why we've come to accompany him, we are his part-time helpers, and he is not permitted to hold his son just yet. He should be fully recovered within a few months. So sorry for any inconvenience." At least the lady began to scan the items again, but didn't look so keen as to keep up conversation with them again.

"Have a good day." She said gruffly as she shoved the bags into Sam and Cas's arms. Sam shrugged and the three began making their way back to the car. Hey, he could have said something worse.

...

It was quiet, that cozy kind of quiet that came when a crying baby finally fell asleep after a long day of crying and dirty diapers and bottles. Sam was exhausted and dropped into a deep sleep easily, and as much as Dean wanted to do the same he found himself worrying about Castiel. He'd seemed okay in the beginning of the day, but now at night after a long day, something seemed...off.

He padded out into the living room and saw the man sitting pin-straight on the couch in the complete darkness, and he jumped slightly when he heard Dean enter the room. That wasn't like him to be jumpy, and Dean felt even more worried.

"Are you okay out here?" He asked quietly, circling around the couch to see his face. He was staring off into space, his hair was unruly and he looked pale and spooked. He didn't answer Dean right away. "Are you, uh, doing that sorting and deleting thing?"

"Yes. It is not physically scarring my mind like with Sam, but this is...disturbing. To put it lightly." He blinked heavily. Dean felt awful that he was putting him through all this, again. He felt like the shittiest friend in the world.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Dean asked, coming and sitting next to him on the couch, and once again Cas felt his heart beat pick it up a notch. He thought about what Adam had instructed him, to hold his hand if he was feeling bold. He had pondered for a long time as to why his body reacted the way it did to Dean's presence, and he had decided that he did not _want_ to hold Dean's hand or take a female vessel to appeal to him. He and Adam both had been mistaken in labeling the few symptoms toward him as romantic. Cas was trying to fit symptoms from a previously emotionless being into a simple explaination. Racing heart, happiness, absolute admiration and respect... But when he finally figured out what else this signified, what he was really feeling, he _wished_ it would have been this first option.

His heart racing- that didn't mean he was nervous because he liked him. He was nervous because he feared him, respected him, in the way that was frighteningly familiar. The way he felt around his Superiors. In cutting himself off from heaven, he'd needed a surrogate, a replacement, though he didn't know it because he'd never rebelled before. And Dean's personality and actions toward him were almost a perfect match already to order in heaven. And now...Cas was under the command of a human being.

In admitting Dean's soul was beautiful, he had gained a deep respect for the "lowly" human. He sang when he recieved praise, just like when his Superiors had rewarded him with a gentle touch and reassuring words. It was so wrong, it sickened him when he realized that unconsiously he'd taken on Dean as his Superior when he'd distanced himself from heaven. It was like a tiger cub taking on a dog as a surrogate mother- unnatural, a shift in the usual hierarchy, completely mismatched... And heaven would surely punish him severly for this.

Superiors and their angels were not exactly friends, but were simultaneously more and less than that. The angels would do anything to protect and provide for their Superiors, die for them easily. And they had a deep bond with their Superiors, fearing and respecting them while simultaneously happy to see them, willing to do anything they asked. They would sometimes recieve praise for good actions, the one thing angels strived for.

Cas realized his bond with was not Dean romantic- he was yearning for his acceptance and praise after the things he'd done. And that was _bad_. Despicable, even. He felt extremely despondent when Adam had finally helped him to understand, and that was messing with his ability to sift through the memories, he was operating at less than optimal performance at the difficult task. And that frustrated him greatly, that he couldn't just put that aside and be more efficient. Emotions (and trying to figure them out) were a pain in his ass.

"Can't you just like..control alt delete the whole chunk?" He asked, and Cas wearily tipped his head to the side. "I do not operate computers or understand the jargon of such technologies, Dean."

"I mean...can't you just take out the whole hell experience in one piece?"

He shook his head slowly. "Memories are not like anything else, their substance is extremely complex and multi-dimensional. I must go through the memories, all of it, and carve them out after I have viewed them behind me." He sighed again. "I'm sorry, Dean. It may take a longer than a week, possibly closer to a month. And it isn't helping that I am also highly distracted."

Now it was Dean's turn to feel confused. "Distracted...by what? What's wrong?"

Cas knew that what he had first believed must have been somewhat taboo for humans by the way Adam had reacted. He didn't quite know where to start with telling Dean what he'd found out. He was sure even Dean would feel strange that he was placed above that of an angel on the hierarchy. Cas felt humiliated, and it easily showed on his face.

"Hey. I don't know what's been going on with you, but you have to tell me. If I can do anything to help...look, I love Adam and I want him to be okay. But it's not like I want you to feel like I don't care how this effects you, Cas, because I do."

He looked away, ashamed. "Dean, it's not that." Dean didn't look convinced.

"If this is too much for you...you can take breaks, Cas. Don't work yourself into the ground. You can take your time, I mean, baby Adam is a handful but it's not that bad-"

"You have become my surrogate Superior." He interrupted what he was sure was going to be the start of a long ramble, and he said this certainly and emotionlessly as the then stared into his face intently to try and judge his reaction.

"I-_What_?" He was expecting for him to say something concerning how Dean had been treating him poorly compared to his family, but nothing like this.

"I'm not sure if it has ever been done before. But I am underneath you in command. I subconsciously put myself in that position when I rebelled against heaven." He noted Dean's flabbergasted expression and felt like maybe now would be a good time for a small attempt at a joke. " A solider is nothing without a person in command, right?" He said meekly.

"I...um...shit, Cas, this is pretty bad, huh?"

"I feel a filth that reaches bone-deep." He said extremely bluntly.

"Well, Jesus, thanks for sparing my feelings in that one." Dean somewhat chuckled. "Hey, does that mean I'm in charge of you? Go out and get me some apple pie from Julian while you're at it. Heh heh,"

"_This isn't funny Dean_!" He insisted, and he grabbed his hair in his fingers, little tufts sticking up from between his fingers.

"I mean, hey, you don't need to get me pie anymore." He said, hoping that the order wasn't that serious.

"It isn't as if I can't disobey orders from you, Dean. That is why I was able to rebel in the first place." He explained, and Dean was still giving him an overwhelmed expression.

"How did this..._when_ did this happen?" He asked quietly.

"Possibly right when I rebelled. But I was only able to figure it out once Adam helped me to realize."

"How would _Adam_ know?" Dean asked, arching his eyebrow.

"He noticed certain changes in the body when you were near. He believed that I had romantic feelings toward you, but I realized that was not the case. Many symptoms are similar to feelings of respect and connection we feel to those who command us."

"You got a damn bon-?" Dean began, and was quickly interrupted. "Increased heart beat and respiration." He answered, looking deep into Dean's face with an innocent expression. "What is a _bon_?"

Dean laughed nervously and ran his down his face. "Hey, I'm not going through this again with you." He went serious again and looked deep into his face. Cas looked sad as hell. "So I'm really your Superior or whatever?" He asked in a quiet voice.

The angel avoided his glance as he nodded. "Dean...this could get me killed."

"And I won't let that happen."


	18. Ivory of the Labyrinth

Dark garnet eyes twinkled in the dark, the only two sources of light in the deep wall of black, as a man in an all-black suit sauntered out, casually swinging and twirling a silvery-blue blade with one hand, with each spin the blade almost left a clean, blue-lit afterglow. The man on the rack was trembling horribly, his arms splayed out and already with numerous gashes riddling his arms and bare and bloodied chest. His long, black hair was falling onto his sweaty face, clinging in thin pieces so his pale skin almost appeared like a china doll with cracks all in the porcelain, the resemblance even more striking because of his asian features.

"Are you ready to talk _now_, little angel-school dropout?" The king of hell asked in a heavy accent, nonchalantly twirling the blade around and around. The man was trembling so much it almost looked as if he wouldn't be able to answer the question. Crowley casually examined the blade and even went to try and pick something from underneath his fingernails with the sharp tip. "It was very difficult for me to find you, if you were aware. One of the Fallen, an extremely rare connection between heaven and Earth. Human, but you still get to tap into the angel network, don't you?" The man's breathing quickened and his breath huffed out as Crowley drew the blade closer, dragging it across the skin on his chest, as a deluge of water spilled out from the shallow laceration, followed only after by a sluggish bit of deep red that exuded slowly from the wound.

"I don't-I haven't for years!" He insisted again, and screamed out as a deeper wound followed his little explanation. Crowley was completely indifferent as he looked to the silvery blade with uninterested eyes. "Of all the three, I had to get this damn useless one." He said to himself, and then jammed the blade deep into the ex-angel's collarbone, which was met with a ripping scream, to which Crowley only reacted with a bored expression. "I'm going to ask nicely one more time, where to find Heaven's Blade. Or else, my boys will make sure to kill and bring that precious little lady you fell for and your little fledglings right down here to be with you. Wouldn't that be nice?" The fallen angel's shiny marble-black eyes twinkled back up at Crowley with horror within their depths. "Please, _anything. _Not that."

"_Where is Heaven's Blade located_?" He demanded again, looking just the slightest bit irked this time. "One more slip up and you'll get to see them bloodied instead of you."

"Okay! I...I remember them saying it was somewhere safe." He trembled more violently at a seriously pissed glance from Crowley. "Uh-and-and it wasn't in heaven. On Earth, I remember now. Heavily protected, it was placed there a long time ago. In-in.." He flinched when Crowley twirled the blade again, he wouldn't hesitate to do a little more slicing if the man looked like he was spewing BS or trying to buy more time. "In a place forgotten by time. Yeah, yeah, that was it. It would have been a place that hasn't been touched for thousands of years." The man looked up hopefully to Crowley's face, and he saw that the man appeared to be thinking instead of getting ready to dice him up again.

"I suppose that will suffice. It appears as if you are of no use to me any longer." He said coldly, looking at the strange symbols along the sides of the silvery-blue metal.

"So are you going to let me go free?" The ex-angel asked meekly, his lower lip trembling ever-so-slightly as sweat rolled down a temple.

"Yeah. Sure. Why not." Crowley said, and pretended to lean over to break the chains that held him splayed out on the rack. "Just kidding!" The demon mocked, and there was a small flash of light as he jabbed the stolen angel blade he carried around deep into the man's stomach. He wiped the blade off with his scarlet silk handkerchief, shaking his head to himself. "Dumbass." He muttered under his breath. He then stole a glance at Earth's Blade, and rolled his eyes. "Dumbass weapon, too." He exited the room, snapping his fingers and ordering two henchmen demons to take care of the body of the fallen angel. He cleaned his hands with his scarlet handkerchief and muttered in a low voice to himself. "You better get ready, Winchesters. Because once I've got Heaven's, I know just where to find my other two."

* * *

"Cas."

The man ignored him, he seemed to be in his own little world as his eyes seemed glazed over as he looked out.

"_Cas_." Dean insisted, and he finally turned to look at him as he lay a hand on his shoulder. "I asked how we're supposed to fix this."

"Not now, we can't." He responded, pushing past him and sittin on the very edge of the couch. "I have to finish this. Curing Adam." He rubbed his chest tenderly, as if he had heartburn.

"What are you...?"

"I have a headache. More like a migrane." He rubbed in small circles, his face taught and in pain. Dean shot him a curious look. "Your head...well, _one_ of your heads- it's on your chest?"

Cas shot him an irritted look with narrowed eyes, pausing for just a second for effect before he began slowly rubbing again. "I suppose. It is not rational to compare to this anatomy."

Dean looked at him in silence for a second longer, just observing him for a moment. He didn't like that this process was hurting him, mentally and physically, and that he was in danger because of him. He felt an urge to try and fix everything, fix everyone... he felt a fresh rush of worry overwhelm him. "How's it going? Any estimate when you'll be done with the memories?"

Cas simply sighed and looked down at his hand, it looked like maybe he was looking through his vessel's skin and bone to the head that now contained Adam's tainted mind. "I don't know. It's taking much longer than it should." He looked like he was deep in thought, and his hand paused as realization softened his face.

"I understand now. Why I haven't been able to achieve full power in a long time." He swept his eyes to meet with Dean's, but for some reason the only emotion Dean saw in them was regret. "I need encouragement from my Superior. I've been...deprived."

Dean sat down next to him, concern painted on his face. "If it gets you feeling better and working faster-just tell me what to do. I'll do it." Cas avoided his eyes. "It's nothing special. I mean the literal definiton of encouragement- and it is the ultimate reward for angels to receive praise. It is almost our sole motivation." He looked extremely forlorn as he dropped his gaze to the ground. He wasn't expecting it when Dean pulled him into a gentle hug, and he stiffened slightly at the unexpected embrace.

"Thank you for helping my baby brother get better." He said quietly into his ear, shutting his eyes and wrapping his arms tighter around him. "You've been doing such a great job. You've helped all of us so much, my family. Thank you, Cas."

Cas felt a deep vibration throughout his grace, the pleasant hum rising quickly like water filling a bowl and finally spilling into the air, pretty chords and notes buzzing into the air in a tiny, barely-there melody. He let the happiness and contentment he'd felt before fill him to the brim, rejuvenating his drive which had been worn extremely thin. "Whoa." Dean said quietly, pulling away with a jerk at the unexpected hum. Cas looked up suddenly, with what looked like acute panic in his eyes."Cas..?"

The angel shoved Dean weakly away, stumbling a few feet away before falling to his hands and knees, retching as the contents of his stomach emptied themselves violently onto the floor. His arms were shaking as he held himself up in an arch, coughing and retching as bile bubbled into the back of his throat and slipped from his mouth.

"Shit, Cas! What the hell was that?! Are you okay?!" Dean quickly came up to him and lay a hand on his back. "Is that supposed to happen?"

Cas squeezed his eyes shut, pain radiating from his face. "_We are not supposed to sing for the humans._" He choked out, tears slipping from his eyes and pattering onto the floor. His arms began shaking even more violently. "_We aren't supposed to-_"

"Hey. Hey, come here..." Dean gently helped to pull him to his feet, but he swayed just slightly. He tried to steady him, but Cas pulled away weakly.

"No...no.." He gripped his hair tightly between his fingers, hiding his face in his palms. "This relpulses me. Our bond repulses me. This is unnatural, Dean. I'm filthy." Dean's face was clearly showing his hurt. "Cas..."

"Stay away." He said in a low voice, and Dean angrily took a hurt step away from him. "This is not my fault, dammit! You know that!" He said, now feeling his hot anger instead of surprise and guilt. "Fine. Take some space. But you have to come talk to me sooner or later." Wordlessly and without even a glance, the man disappeared with a light flap of wings.

"Son of a bitch." Dean sighed and ran a hand down his face. He rolled his eyes in irritation as the baby began crying from his room in the depths of the house. And now Cas wouldn't even be able to verbalize what was wrong with him. "_Dammit_, Cas."

Cas was avoiding Dean and vice versa for the almost the whole next day, and Sam definitely noticed. He decided to ask Dean about it when Castiel left out the backdoor and was sulking by himself under the shade of a tree by Bobby's house, his back hunched over as he stared at the floor.

"Hey Dean? What's been up with you and Cas lately?" Sam asked, dropping to sit next to him on the steps as he extended his finger for Adam to wrap his tiny hand around. He enjoyed having him as a little baby around: even though he wouldn't remember, it was nice to see him innocent and healthy like this, not his typical haunted expression from before. But he did miss teenage Adam; when this was all over, he wouldn't be donning that expression anyway.

Dean pressed his lips together and tilted the baby bottle back a little more, which Adam was suckling down at a break-neck speed. Dean swept his eyes from the baby to Sam, and he sighed. "Yeah. That." He blew a puff of air from his lips and avoided Sam's glance again. "I don't really know how to say this lightly, but Cas...he told me I'm his Superior. Sort of like an angel leader. He said it happened accidently when he rebelled, but I guess it's what's making him sulk around. Apparently he feels a "filth in his bones" because of it." He said sourly.

Sam was speechless, he had no idea what to say to him. Dean spoke up again. "He says he's in danger. And he's trying to sort Adam's memories while all this is going on."

"H-How long has this been going on?" Sam asked, he still wasn't quite sure what to say.

"A couple years, I guess." He said unenthusiastically, avoiding Sam's gaze and looking at Adam. "He's been avoiding me like the plague ever since his little revelation." They both looked out at the hunched back of Cas underneath the tree, facing away from them. Dean sighed again, barely audible.

"Do you want me to go talk to him?" Sam asked gently, as kindly as he could. At first he thought Dean would do the usual, shake his head and keep quiet until Sam went over on his own accord, but this time he actually nodded. "I just...I have no idea what the hell I'm supposed to do about this."

"I think it would be nice to bring Adam over to him. Maybe that would make him feel better." Sam said, and at first Dean looked reluctant, but finally gently pushed the baby into Sam's arms. "Just, uh-"

"I know, Dean. Hold his head and be gentle." Sam laughed, cradling him next to his neck. "Don't get separation anxiety for the few minutes I'm gone." He snorted, and Dean just avoided his gaze and waved him away. "Asshole."

Sam finally came up to the man who was hunched over and hugging his knees to his chest, looking despondently at the ground. His clear blue eyes were staring straight ahead at the ground, looking at nothing, almost like he was looking past everything in front of him as he was lost in his head. A few dark hairs spilled from his head and fell in little floppy locks over his pale forehead.

"Hey." Sam said quietly, sitting down slowly and extending his mile-long legs with a slight groan. His young brother was keeping him on his feet constantly, for sure. It was nice to just sit down. Without a word, he extended the drowsy baby into Cas's arms, which he accepted easily and held him next to his neck so they were pressed cheek-to-cheek. He looked up as if to say thanks with those sad eyes.

Sam understood why Adam would make him feel better. Cas had told him that he felt like he was his brother now, and he must have been sad when that small piece connecting them as family had disappeared. Even afterward, he'd still said he felt Adam was his family, and was going through all this for him. Sam drew to some conclusions; after so many years, he was missing his real family so much it hurt. And he was latching onto Adam for that reason, as well as Sam and Dean.

"You're completely correct, of course." Cas spoke up softly, blinking his eyes for a long moment before opening them again. "I need my family. I need to make things right with them again." He sighed and gently stroked the baby's soft head of light blond hair. "I don't know if they will take me back, because of...of my bond with Dean."

"I'm sorry that happened to you. I really am. He told me everything about it, how you didn't mean to, how you're in danger." The angel looked straight ahead, avoiding Sam's gaze as he lowered his eyelids, his eyelashes just brushing the skin around his eyes.

"I'm afraid of what might happen if my real Superior takes her rightful place again. I may...I may become completely apathetic and indifferent to both of you." He rubbed the baby's back again and seemed to be in deep contemplation. "I do not desire for that to happen."

"What if...what if they don't take you back?" Sam asked quietly, and he saw the angel's eyes darken as he averted his gaze and simply looked to the top of the baby's rounded head. After a second of heavy silence, Sam tried to speak up and console him again. "I promise Dean wants the best for you, Cas. You're like family to us. He'd never...Cas, he'd _never_ take advantage of you or force you to do things you don't want to do. I know he wouldn't."

The angel finally sighed and swept his eyes to look up at Sam, rubbing the tiny human's back as he began to make little snuffling noises as he snuggled into his neck. "The truth is that because he has been my Superior does not mean he 'controls' me, or can force me to do things I don't wish to. It simply means that I am not only willing, but _want_ to do anything I can to help him. I understand now why I've almost destroyed myself trying to come to both of your aids."

"He tries to do what's best for everyone, you know that. He'll probably treat you better than any angel leader, right?" Sam asked with a tiny smile, trying to make the moody angel feel just a little better.

"Yes." Castiel sighed softly. "Much better than any angel Superior. This is what worries me. I may be severely punished when they take me back. They turn our innate devotion around against us and often times make us do horrible things. Despicable things, kill our brothers, hurt ourselves...but we are in what feels like voluntarily servitude to them. I almost...do not want to disconnect Dean's link. They-no, _I_ will hurt myself under the illusion that it's what I want. We can't help but be strongly connected to our leaders."

"Then why did you rebel against your other Superior in the first place?"

This question seemed to actually catch the angel off guard. "I...that I do not understand." He looked to Adam again. "I will finish what I've started before trying to reconcile with my family. I'm afraid that my bond with Dean is the only thing that is generating my deep companionship with you. Once that tie is severed...I may never look at humans like I do now again." Sam pressed his lips together. Maybe his hypothesis was right, and he didn't want to lose Cas as a friend, but he didn't want him to be dead either.

"What about Adam? Is he still sort of your family?"

Cas shook his head, tenderly smoothing down the wispy hair. "No. There is no trace of grace left within him. But... I like to think he is still my brother." Sam smiled when he said that, he looked at the two of them, they were very sweet as Cas handled him gently, almost expertly. Sam kept quiet for just a moment, watching as Cas gave Adam one last gentle rub and finally handed him back to Sam.

"It's all going to be okay, Cas. I promise." Sam tried to sound reassuring as he lifted the baby back into his arms. Cas resorted to hugging his knees again, looking like he was deep in thought. "Perhaps. Thank you, Sam." He said quietly. Sam began to stand up and head back to the house, he smiled internally as he pictured Dean pacing and basically frothing at the mouth with worry for Adam.

"Wait."

Sam turned around at the soft voice, confused. Cas was looking right into his eyes with his piercing blue, his face seemed a little bit less desconsolate this time. "Please tell your brother...please tell him I'm sorry, I will talk to him soon. I just needed time to think." Sam nodded and felt sad himself just looking at Cas, he looked like a scared little kid lost in the grocery store. "He'll appreciate that." Cas nodded and looked away again, his face getting just a shade paler and he shuddered slightly, carving out a particularly haunting memory. Hell wasn't exactly easy to shake off.

* * *

Crowley felt his heartbeat pick up as he slipped down another hallway, turned right, then left, straight, right again... the light was dim and the walls a red, moist clay as he made his way deeper and deeper into the labyrinth. He felt like he was getting closer-he couldn't wait to wrap his fingers around that hilt, to feel power course through his veins as he held the last piece to the puzzle, the object alone could finally kill God, and combined with the other three...

_King of Everything. What a ring to it._ He thought to himself, smirking as he turned sharply down the next corner. His smile was wiped off his face pretty damn quickly as he almost ran right into the man blocking his path, standing with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face.

"You stabbed one of my favorite humans." Gabriel tsked and shook his head, keeping his arms crossed over his chest, his stomach area still heavily bandaged and it could be seen from his partially buttoned long sleeve. "Dick move."

"If you haven't noticed, I'm the _King of Hell_." Crowley replied caustically, trying to discreetly reach for the stolen blade he had in a sheath in his belt.

"Ah ah, now. And I thought we were having a friendly chat." Gabriel brought his eyebrows down over his hazel eyes which were twinkling with anger, and with one sweep he pinned the demon against the damp red-clay wall. "And I'd thought we'd set aside our differences." He said sarcastically, sliding a weapon of his own into his hand.

"Looking for _this_?" Gabriel slipped the blade out with an expert flick, and Crowley's eyes widened with greed as the blade flashed before his eyes. Even in the dim light (the caverns that contained the extensive labyrinth were deep, deep underground) the weapon was gleaming brightly, the blade itself the purest of whites, shining with flecks of opalescent pearl. The symbols carved on both sides seemed less aggressive and rough, though clearly in the same language as all the others. It was like the others were hand-written, while this was calligraphy. The hilt was a highly polished, dark koa-wood brown, with swirling grooves not unlike the intricate swirls of a zen garden's sands.

It was stunning, beautifully powerful. And hell, did Crowley want it. At the moment, however, he could barely move except to breathe, and even then he was ragged as strangled cries escaped his throat. "Consider me doing you a favor. That sphinx was a pain in my ass. And the minotaur, and the basilisk, and the other god-awful creatures down here just waiting to protect and stewing for thousands of years." His eyes narrowed again and he brought the stunningly pure white blade up, just inches from Crowley's greedy, prompting eyes. "Mark my words, this will be the last your dirty little eyes see of this." He said acidly, finally letting go any getting ready to take flight.

Crowley lunged for the weapon, almost animalistic in his greed, but he was too late. Gabriel gripped his hand into a claw and shoved it deep into his abdomen, shooting a bit of clean light into the demon, who bellowed in pain as the two very different substances clashed painfully, blistering his skin almost instantaneously.

"Next time? Don't stab my friends." The archangel said in a dangerously cold voice, and swept his arm out, easily plucking Earth's blade from where Crowley tucked it 'safe' by his side. The demon managed to let out a sound of protest, but that was all as he was powerless against the angel. "Have fun with all these pretty little creatures. Bastard." Then, he was gone with the fluttering of wings.

Crowley sank into the floor in defeat. A second ago, he'd been flying high, he had one bird in the hand, two in a Winchester-shaped bush, and another right about to fly into his clutches. And now, he had absolutely nothing. His skin on his midsection bubbled like boiling water, slowing down to a stop, and creatures from deep within the maze cried in anguish over their failure, painful wails in different tongues filling the air. The injured demon could almost hear the slimy slip of oversized snakes over the clay, or the quick thrumming of thick lion's paws as a seriously pissed off sphinx searched for that someone who had betrayed her.

_This is no way to treat a King._ He thought bitterly, still unable to even collect himself to stand up and try and find his way out of his hellish maze. _Fuckin' Winchesters._


	19. The Bottled-Water Kappa

Dean couldn't help but feel extremely bitter as Cas continued to avoid him as he sort through Adam's memories, even though Sam had told him he'd said he was sorry. Dean had a lot on his mind lately, fretting about if Crowley was making any headway in collecting the blades, if Adam was going to be okay, if Cas was going to be okay. Especially that.

The only time that Cas had actually finally sat down and talked to him was when he was with Sam, as he explained his plan when he'd fully gone through all the memories.

"It won't take long to transfer back, but I must be undisturbed. After I've served my purpose, I will continue the search for the fourth installment of the weapon."

Dean looked back at the angel, and frowned. He didn't look so good as he relieved hell here on earth, his face was paler than usual and even though he didn't require sleep, he had swatched of purple-blue under his eyes that were puffy and crinkled with sleepless lines.

"Don't you think you should at least take a break?" Dean huffed, almost annoyed that the angel didn't seem to know how to take care of himself. "A few days to rest isn't going to hurt anyone."

Cas scowled back and rubbed his chest again, his migrane he'd been complaining about for a while. "Yes, it will. I must find the weapon, and then we will destroy all of the blades."

"Hang on, all of them?" Dean felt the weight of the demon knife in his sheath, and it bore a certain importance. This knife was _his_, it had saved his ass countless times.

"I suppose the requirement is only one. But I'd like to be safe for once." He stood up abruptly and gently pulled Adam from the high-chair he'd been placed in, folding him securely into his arms. "Now. Do not disturb me." He turned around, and Dean felt anger deep in his chest.

"Hang on, Cas, dammit! We haven't talked in days and that's all you're going to say to me?"

The angel was quiet as he turned around just slightly, but averted his eyes from looking into Dean's. "Contrary to what you believe, I work for heaven. And I will work to stop Crowley from ruling it, directly after I finish what I've started."

Dean huffed as the angel quickly locked himself into one of the bedrooms. "There's no arguing with that bastard, is there?" He let himself blame his emotions on being angry, but really, he was just worried for his friend.

* * *

Cas lifted his eyes, and there was pain deep within the blue as he squinted at the scene before him. Two dead angels before him, with two quickly expanding pools of silvery-white liquid; angel blood in its purest manifestation. With a shaking hand he pulled back his silver blade, which was glossed with blood. He'd only wished to talk, to find the blade, when members of his old garrison had come at him and attacked him before he could even explain his purpose. He was surprised he wasn't too injured, just a few wounds, when he was so close to drained of energy.

"I did not come here for violence. I regret that you made me do this." He tried to say calmly, but his voice was shaking. The she-angel before him had her hands calmly behind her back, staring at him with disdain.

"Do not look for heaven's blade. You will not and will not be allowed to find." She said with a razor-sharp look his way. "We will never disclose where it is hidden. I will not allow the murder of our Father with it, Castiel."

"I would never! I am here to find it and destroy it! Would you rather have the king of hell call himself our Father?" He replied angrily, clenching his fists tightly. The woman looked down at him with narrowed eyes.

"Crowley will never be disclosed the information either." She sneered. "I see. You have become much too attached to the humans, that is the only reason you wish to destroy Heaven's blade."

"I-" He started, but was quickly cut off as the woman suddenly was holding him tightly in an unbreakable grip. He was fast, but she was faster. His former Superior, the one he had used to take orders from.

"You wish to rule over them as God." She stated, and flattened her one hand on his stomach. "N-" He began, but clamped his teeth shut to keep from crying out as her hand began to sink into his vessel, reaching his grace, which began to churn in panic. "And after your issue with the Leviathans, all the angels you'd killed..." She gripped his grace tightly, the light began to squirm as weak tendrils lashed out to try and resist. His eyes were wide with shock, his breathing coming in panicked spurts. "Please-please, I've learned, I would never-"

"We can't take any chances."

A glow began to start on her arm, spreading down to her hand and pushing in to Cas's own soul. "You were a very bad boy, Castiel, running away and bonding with a human like that. It's time for you to come to your senses, and know who your _real_ Superior is."

He began to panic as the foreign substance began to mix and swirl into his. "What are you doing-?"

"You need special attention now, you naughty child." He narrowed her eyes and he began to feel his real self beginning to fade, his drive to serve and yield to her rules instead expanding. "A special, more _direct_ bond." He began to panic as he felt his strong love for his humans rapidly begin to fade. "No..no, not that-"

"You will report back to me only as your true Superior." And with that, he was hurtling back to earth, not quite sure where he would land now that his tug to join the humans had been virtually eliminated.

...

Dean came back from checking Adam's room again, where he was fast asleep. Ever since Cas had brought him back to his old body and his old memories (well, the majority of them) he'd been sleeping like a log, and Dean had been checking in on him constantly, still not quite used to him being so old again.

"So what were you saying?" Dean asked Sam again, coming out into the living room where Sam had a newspaper and was reading an article. "What was the monster again?"

"I don't know. It says here that almost twenty people have drowned in the town, and a lot of others...it's weird. Doctors have diagnosed them with flattened schizophrenia, which means they don't have emotions...it's almost like they don't have souls." Sam explained, looking at the article. "The town makes its money from bottling water from their mountain spring. That's all I've got."

"Sam, I mean, I know that we're waiting on Gabe come out of hiding and help us again, and for Cas while he's looking for that blade... but are you sure Addie will be up for the case?" Dean asked, nodding toward the room that Adam was sleeping in. "I mean, he was less than a year old a few hours ago."

"We can't just leave him. We need to keep him close by, Dean. I'm just..worried about him."

"Yeah, Sammy. Me too." He said dejectedly, scrubbing his face with his hands. "So, I guess we'll have to bring him?"

Sam nodded and glanced down at the article again. "Do you have any ideas as to what this can be?" He asked, not really expecting to get an answer.

Dean brought his eyebrows together in recollection, and then grinned. "You know what? I might." He said, and Sam rolled his eyes when he saw his facial expression.

"Please don't tell me you learned this through porn somehow." He huffed, running his hand through his hair.

"...Maybe?"

"You are so gross." He tried to say with a straight face, but wound up breaking into a smile. His eyes darted to the doorway, were he heard a few footsteps. Adam was standing at the doorway, his legs peeking out from his red plaid boxers, he was wearing a white tee shirt and trying to smooth down his bedhead. He looked much younger than seventeen as he yawned and scrubbed the back of his blonde hair with one hand.

"There you are, the little baby." Dean felt the first genuine smile on his face in a long time as Adam squinted at him irritably. "Shut up." He replied groggily. "Yup, same old Adam." Dean chuckled.

"Hey, buddy. How'd you sleep?" Sam asked, smiling and happy to see he was up after sleeping for almost twelve hours.

"Pretty good." He replied, coming up and sitting next to Dean. "Last thing I remember was sharing a body with Cas." He yawned and squinted his eyes as he asked "So what about porn?"

Dean guffawed and scrubbed Adam's hair in a type of noogie. "That's my man!" Sam pitched him a bitchface and rolled his eyes.

"I'm not letting you corrupt him until he is a legal adult of eighteen." Sam tried to say seriously, and Dean waved it off. "A guy's got needs, not like you would know, _Samantha_." He cheekily lifted an eyebrow.

"Okay, dammit! What did you say you knew?" He brought a hand to his face and pinched the bridge of his nose. Sometime he swore he was the oldest brother.

"Okay. So, I was watching a..._film_, and there was this creature that lives in lakes and they can drown people, but mostly they...ehem...take out the souls of the people that have wronged them and eat them. I think they're called Kappas."

Sam lifted an eyebrow. "And why is this so embarrassing?"

"They take the souls out not through the stomach like angels but..uh...from the ass."

Adam was chuckling. "So I guess you could call it a _soul_onoscopy?" Dean started cracking up and clapping him on the back. "Adam, that was _the_ worst pun I have ever heard in my life." Adam finally was smiling again.

"Dean is this even a real creature for God's sake!" Sam fired off, looking like he wanted to just slam his forehead onto the laptop he was holding on his lap. "Yeah man, look it up! Kappas, kinky stuff."

Sam had a shameful flush on his face as he typed rapidly in the search bar, ignoring his immature brothers as they fired off more cringe-worthy jokes. Sam was guessing Adam was enjoying being a 'grown-up' again."Hey, who knew the way to a person's soul is up the butt and around the corner?" "My shit personality must be explained by my shit soul!" "I guess fisting must bring two people together like nothing else, huh?" "Yeah, and I guess-"

"Okay, _stop_!" Sam finally spoke up as he rapidly scanned the information on the webpage. "It say here Kappas can gain power by eating this ball that contains part of the soul called a _shirikodama, _or they will wrestle someone and drown them just for fun. That has to explain both incidences! It says it's some sort of Japanese water-diety who lives in fresh water and streams. They look like a kind of turtle-human with blue skin and a cavity in their head."

"Maybe it's getting mad that they're tapping in and bottling all that water from his home." Dean finally answered seriously. "So, how do we gank 'em? And I hope I don't have to get drunk this time, that last Japanese creature was a pain in the ass. _Not_ literally." Adam started cracking up, and Sam decided to let it go since he hadn't seen his little brother laugh like that in a while.

"Nope, no drinking in this one. Actually, it seems pretty easy." He and Sam exchanged a glance. _Good_. They needed the case to be easy if Adam was coming along.

"We just have to get them out of the water, and then get them to bow or fall over. See, they draw their powers from water, so when they're out of the water they keep their water inside their bowl-shaped head, called a _sara_." Sam explained futher, squinting at the screen. "Then they're powerless, and I guess we could just go from there."

Dean grabbed the keys to the car. "Alright. Let's head out in ten?" He asked, the the two nodded and began to get ready.

"I still can't believe you found out about this from some damn porno." Sam shook his head and followed him outside to the car.

"Hey, I said it would come in handy one day, right?" Dean shot back.

"Yeah, yeah. Shuddup."

...

They rumbled up to the main information center of the small town, it had all the visitor's information on why their bottled water was so great and tasteful and yadda yadda. "You've got to be pretty bland to have a town be known for their _water_." Dean rolled his eyes and went up to the center, looking for the mal that indicated as to were the main spring would be.

"I would not recommend a hike to the reservior today." The man piped up from behind a counter, which caused the brothers to jump, they hadn't seen him when they walked in.

"Yeah, well, what's wrong with wanting to go on a little hike?" Dean shot back, slightly embarrassed at how much he'd jumped when the man had spoken up.

"I don't know, sir. I've just been informed to issue a warning."

"Well, me and my brothers here are..uh, nature enthusiasts. So, I recommend you mind your own business." The man looked wearily out at the three men, who looked more suitable to be lumberjacks than "nature enthusiasts", and they in no way had on good hiking clothes. "Suit yourselves." He bit back, waving them away irritably.

The three brothers did not have much of a fun time hiking up to the reservior. "Ugh, I got bit again!" Adam complained, slapping away a mosquito for what felt like the thousandth time. "How much farther?" Dean whined, pushing branches that were in his way away almost a little too agressively.

"We have like half a mile. Quit whining." Sam shot back, peeved as he also pulled plants out of the way. There was a heated silence, until Adam spoke up timidly. "Uh, guys..."

He pointed, and the brothers looked to where he was pointing. There it was, sitting by itself on a fallen and decomposing log, a person was passed out next to it as it happily was eating a ball of glowing white like it was a ripe fruit, slurping occasionally as bright white trickled down its strange face. It had a beaked mouth like a sea turtle, and all his skin was an even, eggshell blue. It had extremely strong and toned human arms with short, stubbly legs. It looked to be wearing a lily pad as a hat, but it was very strange as the lily pad was completely flat on a head that looked like it had been cut flat across the top.

"God, that thing is nasty." Dean said under his breath, cocking his gun as he went to head out. "Wait-! You have to make it bow!" Sam hissed at him. "Be, I don't know, nice to it!"

Dean pushed into the small clearing, quickly followed by Sam and Adam. He might have been feeling a little overconfident, especially because Sam had said the creature wasn't very dangerous.

"Good morning," Dean had to force out a smile as the kappa's dull, turtle eyes turned to look at him. It slurped up the remaining bit of the soul it had been consuming and stood up off the log, it couldn't have been taller than three feet. Dean almost started laughing at how funny the thing looked, with strange body proportions and that flat cutting-board head.

"You aren't here to steal more of my water, are you?" It grumbled out in a surprisingly sandpapery and intimidating voice. Dean was straining to think of ways to get this damn thing to bow to him. "Uh, no. Of course not. I'm just here to check out that everything's okay, that no one is getting hurt. Because that's what my family does, protect humanity." He felt a little nervous as the thing seemed completely unphased. Dammit, he thought that that was pretty damn honorable.

"How wonderful." The creature seethed, and put his hand up directly in front of him. "Protect humanity. What about me, living while my water, my lifesource, is bottled and shipped away? Never to return?" It made a gripping motion, and suddenly both Sam and Adam were choking, their hands flying to their throats. "What if I took away your lifesource? To me, water is like the very air I breathe."

Dean began to panic as their faces began to get redder and redder. He suddenly remembered what Sam had said, that they got their power from the souls they consumed. And he'd just eaten one. _God dammit_.

"Stop!" Dean screamed out as Adam was the first to collapse, still choking to death as he lay sprawled unconcious. "Take my soul instead of theirs! Please!"

The kappa finally released his grip, and Sam wheezed in a deep breath. "Now, why would that be your request?" The creature growled.

"Because I would die for them. Any day of the week, with not even a second thought." Dean explained, seeming so much more genuine that when he'd tried to get the thing to bow before. Suddenly, the creature had pressed his palms together and bowed to Dean, and a bathtub's worth of water came cascading from the top of its head and the lily pad fell off, exposing a bowl-shaped indent in the blue skin on his scalp.

"You're not drowning any more people. Or having ass-souls for lunch." Dean steadied his gun and was ready to fire it straight into the creature's chest. "Wait! Please! I am not here of my own accord! The manager put me in this spring to purify the water. He kidnapped me from my home in Japan! Please, I only want to go home!"

Sam pushed Dean's gun away, he knew once they lost their power they were forced to tell the truth. "Why didn't you leave?" He asked.

"He tied to me to the land. But if you command me to leave, the binding can be broken." Sam exchanged a glance with Dean. "Leave here, and never come back." Sam ordered, and the creature nodded. "Yes, master."

"And no more drowning people. And only eat their souls if..." Sam screwed up his face in thought. "If they want you to because they think it's sexy." Dean rolled his eyes and punched Sam on the shoulder. "I never said I _enjoyed_ that film."

"Yes, master." The kappa nodded, and scampered away. Dean quickly went to kneel beside Adam, who was coming to and groaning just slightly. "You sure that thing won't be any more trouble?" Sam nodded and helped Dean to pull Adam up. "I'm sure. They have to obey whoever when they're powerless."

"Ugh. Why am I always the one getting hurt on the job?" Adam complained as he stood up and took a few deep breaths. "It's best if you get used to it now, Small Fry." Dean chuckled. "Or should I say Baby Fry?"

"Oh, shut up." Adam shot back, but smiled a little. Maybe this life he'd been ressurected into wouldn't be so bad after all, if he had more days like these.

...

Things were peaceful on the car ride back home, as the music lightly played in the background and the two little brothers were beginning to fall asleep again. And that was when Dean saw him, just standing by the side of the road. But why the hell was he here, in the middle of nowhere?

"Cas?" Dean said to himself, pulling over quickly and getting out of the car. The angel was bleeding in numerous places, staining his clothes. He turned his head and looked blankly at Dean, who stopped in his tracks. Something wasn't right about the way he was looking at him. He was expecting his usual "Hello, Dean." But instead...

"What do you want from me this time, _human_?"


	20. Human and Angel

"Cas?" Dean asked, stepping out of the car and approaching the angel like he was a feral animal with his arms outstretched. "Dude, are you okay? You're hurt!"

Cas narrowed his eyes and was gripping tightly to his blade, slick with angel blood. "You will address me as Castiel and by no other title." He growled, tightening his hand on his blade. Dean froze in place, keeping his hands palm-out to show he wasn't going to hurt him. "Okay, _Castiel_, what happened to you? Why are you covered in blood?"

"I was trying to retrieve heaven's blade when I was thankfully led back by a beautiful shepard to my rightful garrison in heaven." He squinted at Dean, and began talking to him as if he wasn't even there. "I was a lamb who had wandered far from my flock. Now I must do penance. I must make sure no human lays a finger on Heaven's blade."

Dean laughed nervously, he wasn't even sure how to deal with him like this. He was acting almost delirious. "Cas-" He started, forgetting the 'new name'. Cas gave him a sharp and irritated glance, but said nothing. " Uh, are you feeling alright? You don't look so good. Did you catch, like, an angel flu or something?" Again, nothing as he stared blankly ahead. "So, I'm guessing you didn't get the God Stick." He felt a frustration building up in his chest. What the hell was wrong with him?

"He didn't, but I did." Dean heard a familiar voice pipe up behind him. He spun around to see Gabriel standing there, looking intently at Cas, who stared just as fiercely back.

"You wanna tell me what's going on here?" Dean asked, annoyed, after a tense moment between the two angels. Gabriel didn't answer him directly but instead spoke to Castiel.

"I see you got a little ownership switcheroo, huh Cassie?" Gabriel asked, his hand tightening on the blade he kept securely in his hand. Cas kept his eyes narrowed as he shot back. "I was led back to heaven after being astray. For that I am grateful."

Gabriel pressed his lips together. "You went to heaven to search for the blade, huh?" He asked wearily.

"A mistake. Obviously." Cas said snarkly. "No one should hold the power of Heaven's Blade, brother. You should consider putting it in a safe place once again." He was giving Gabriel a piercing gaze, which he met with a grin.

"You know, I was just beginning to like the new you." He said, and with a small hand motion, the angel in the trench coat simply collapsed to the ground.

"Cas!" Dean lunged and was barely able to catch him before his head would have slammed to the ground. He panted and looked into his face, which was completely relaxed. "Dean?" He heard a groggy voice and a bright light was shining into his face. "Wuzgoinon?" Sam asked, shining the flashlight over at him, and Adam was still fast asleep in the backseat.

"Yeah, Gabe, what is going on?" Dean asked, trying to grip the angel underneath the armpits and hoist him up, but he was so heavy with his dead weight. Gabriel simply snapped and Castiel disappeared, and he heard a small shriek in the car when the limp man had slid onto Adam.

"Eh, he's taking a little big-bro induced nap right now." Gabriel answered, finally relaxing and letting go of heaven's blade, keeping it in its sheath. "I hate to tell you this, Dean, but you're not his little surrogate Daddy anymore." Dean locked his jaw at the comment, but was walking back to the car and up to Gabe.

"Okay, then who is?" Dean asked irritably. "That wasn't Cas! Well, the Cas I know!"

Gabriel shook his head. "He was foolish, thinking an angel of his status could just _ask_ where the knife was and they'd tell him. And just look where that got him." He pressed his lips together. "Anyway, I successfully got that God Stick for you. So, now you have three, don't you?"

Dean looked down at the ground before climbing back into the front seat, both his little brothers looking at him with confused, wide eyes. "Is Cas okay?" Adam asked, nodding to the man who was out cold and leaning against him. "Gabe, why don't you hop on in the back with them." Dean slammed the door and was about to turn the ignition when the car bounced slightly and they were somewhere entirely different, and Dean's stomach was swirling unpleasantly. "_Gabe_, godammit!"

"Archangels _don't ride in the back seat._" Gabriel enunciated, and Dean scoffed. "Maybe a little common courtesy wouldn't kill you." Dean shot back, climbing from the car. They were in front of Bobby's.

"C'mon, everyone, inside. We'll talk all of this over when we're rested up tommorow." Dean was mother-henning his family members, shooing them into the house and reaching in and looping the unconcious angel's arm over his shoulder and he started to drag him into the house. Gabriel walked next to him, arrogantly making no attempt to help Dean as he puffed out air and struggled to carry Castiel.

"Look, you've failed to address my concern." Gabriel said calmly, keeping his hand pressed to the blade on his side.

"What..concern.." Dean huffed, and Gabriel rolled his eyes.

"The _blades_, Dean? The very objects that have been the center of your attention for a while now? Oh, the object that I _very willingly_ got myself mutilated for?" He showed that his midsection was still wrapped up in gauze, and Dean clentched his teeth together. "Yeah, yeah man. I've already said thanks, and I owe you one, okay?"

Gabriel had his fun watching Dean struggle with Cas and snapped his fingers, and he disappeared from in his arms. "He's on the couch, he'll probably wake up in a few hours." He turned towards Dean, the green bits in his hazel eyes twinkling dangerously. "You have three of the four object needed to make this superweapon now, Dean. And Crowley has the forth."

Dean pressed his lips together and nodded. "I know that, Gabe. He stole it and stabbed me, remember?"

Gabe chuckled. "The ol' grab n' stab. The king never will change, will he?"

Dean gave Gabriel a look that could kill. "What is with your obsession with me getting hurt?"

Gabriel began making his way into the house. "Look, all I'm saying is that these things are painting a gigantic, red-and-white bulls eye on your backs, and all of hell is the archer. So I would pick one, whichever one, it doesn't really matter," He paused, and stood still, glaring at Dean. "And destroy it."

Dean narrowed his eye as the thought sunk in. "Which one?"

Gabriel nonchalantly shrugged. "I guess that's up to you. Or, you could involve your brothers, it doesn't matter to me. But Get. Rid. Of. One." He jabbed him on the chest with each word, the air suddenly crackling with energy as if to show that he meant business.

"_How_?!" Dean realized even though they'd been working toward this goal for the longest time, he had no idea what to do once they'd finally done it.

Gabriel shrugged again, in such an annoying way that Dean wished he could just punch him in the face. "All you need to know is just scribbled on the sides. Get that prophet of yours to translate. They should have instructions on there. Well, at least I think." He finally reached into his sheath and drew out the pure white blade, and Dean's eyes widened as he took it in.

"Here." Gabriel held it out to him, and Dean took it in his hand gingerly and slid it into place on his belt, there was only one space left out of the four. "No need to thank me." Gabriel joked as Dean was left speechless. "Thank you, Gabe. Really."

Dean bumped his way up the front steps, finally turning around with one more question. "Wait, what am I supposed to do about...Cas.." He rolled his eyes and groaned to see that the angel had already left. "Oh, son of a bitch."

...

When the knocked out angel finally came to, his head felt like it had been rammed with a five ton brick, and his whole body ached. "Ugghhh," He voiced, touching three fingers to his head gingerly. His older brother sure could be an asshole, seeing that he and the other archangels were the only ones who could inflict something like this.

His head swam as he tried to stand up, but realized he wad handcuffed. He jerked on the chain impatiently, and realized it wasn't ordinary, human handcuffs, but they had sigils carved all on the surface, preventing him from flying away or calling for help.

His head jerked around the room, searching for who might be there. His eyes landed on Dean, and he narrowed his blue eyes angrily. "Human! Release me immediately!" He demanded, tugging on his chains again. "_Human_!"

"Calm your tits, Cas. We'll figure out how to fix you soon enough, but I've got other stuff on my plate right now, alright?" Dean replied wearily, he was looking at the three blades like he'd been doing all night, trying to figure out which one would be the least horrible to get rid of. So far, he got nothing.

"I have taken a male vessel and therefore have no female mammories. And you do not have anything or your plate. You lack any type of dinnerware at the moment." Cas replied irritably, tugging on the cuffs once more.

"Geez. I almost forgot how annoying you could get." Dean replied, snorting, before looking down at the blades again. He wished he could somehow keep all of them, and get Crowley out of the picture. It would make his job a hell of a lot easier, that was for sure. He needed his brothers' input if he was going to try and make his decision.

"Just sit tight, alright?" Dean dragged his hand down his face. "I'm getting some shut-eye, okay?"

Cas irritatingly rattled his chain on his cuffs again. "Don't you dare! Human!" He barked, and Dean began to make his way down the hallway. "Human! _Human_!" As he kept walking, Cas swallowed and almost forced himself to say. "Dean!"

He froze and turned around. Cas tugged at the cuffs and frowned. "Dean, please! I must return to my garrison immeidiately!" Dean strode up to him, crouched down on his knees, and stared into his narrowed blue eyes.

"No."

Cas struggled with an exasperated sigh. "You have no right to interfere with heaven's plans! Release me!"

"What the hell, Cas?!" Dean felt everything he'd bottled up come spilling out as his tone raised. "You acted like me being your Superior was the worst thing to ever happen to you, you barely even talked to me for the last couple weeks, and then you just show up like _this_?" He hand a hand through his hair in frusteration. "Why did you do this to me, man?"

Cas squinted at him, confused. "I did not talk to you because I was sorting and deleted memories for the young human. Which was neither rational nor worth my time." Castiel practically growled. Dean shot him a look as if he dared for him to continue.

"He had spent his time in hell, and deserved or not, I should not have spent my time and energy on such a useless being and he-"

Cas was interrupted by a rough punch to the face by Dean. "_Aucchhh_!" Dean hissed and squeezed his fist, which was bloodied already. "Don't you dare insult my family, _angel_."

Cas kept his face to the side, and spoke up again. "I do not understand your anger. I am back in my rightful place. You should not be interfereing with heaven's plan like this." He replied in a monotone voice. Dean frowned and turned away. He hated seeing him like this, he couldn't even look at him anymore.

"We're done here, Cas. Until we can find Dorothy to show us how to get you a heart, you're staying right here."

"You were referencing The Wizard of Oz. But it was not very good." Cas replied.

Dean felt a little tug on his heart. That settled it, this was _so_ not Cas. He went back into his room without another word, and flopped face-down in exhaustion on his bed. He could settle one thing at a time, starting with choosing one of those damn blades.


	21. The Decision

**Hi! Sorry updates have been taking so long. I've been sidetracked by other stories of mine, and I realized I've almost been writing this for a year! Wow! I might have a few more hunting with the brothers and fun creatures (maybe in epilogues?), but for now it's looking like this might end soon! Please leave a review :) maybe what would you like to see next?**

* * *

Needless to say Dean didn't sleep very well that night. Cas kept whining for "human" like a goddamn untrained puppy in the night, and even under two pillows he still couldn't get to sleep.

He stumbled up at around six in the morning, making his morning coffee as he rubbed sleep from his eyes. His eyes flicked over to see Cas, who was slumped with his back to the wall, his arm draping over his head connected to the handcuffs and a grumpy expression on his face as he wearily had his legs extended in front of him, looking at-or maybe through- Dean scornfully.

Dean took a sip of his coffee. "Have a fun night yelling your ass off?" He quipped, rubbing his forehead. Well, crap. Today was decision day.

"No." Cas replied, his voice especially gravelly. "I wouldn't have to yell if you'd just released me."

Dean all but slammed his cup down. "Well, too bad. I'm keeping you here 'till Gabe tells me what the hell I'm supposed to do with you."

The angel huffed angrily, wanted to cross his arms but couldn't, and this made him look even angrier. "I won't forget this." He mumbled threateningly.

"Excuse me? Is that a threat?" Dean rolled his eyes. "Okay, Cas."

"_I told you_ you are to address me as Castiel." The angel shot back angrily.

"Are you two lovebirds fighting again?" Sam was shuffling down the hallway, yawning into his hand.

"Har, har Sam." Dean clentched his hands and spun away the chained up angel. "Look, we gotta get Addie up. Something important we gotta do today."

...

Three pairs of eyes were staring down at the three object perfectly laid out on the table. The three objects were so different, but similar at the same time. There was that old demon knife, all-too-familiar with the wooden grooved hilt and silver blade, with strange symbols on the face of the craggy steel. The Purgatory blade was smooth, black, and lethal-looking, like the skin of a deep black snake, flecks of gold and red glimmering up from its depths like shimmering silt. Next to each other, they were exact opposites, the other a stark white with a powerful delicateness; the blade of Heaven.

Dean rubbed his hands together. "Okay, well. We're about to destroy one of the objects that has existed since the dawn of time. So no biggie."

The three of them looked over the blades in silence, contemplating. "I say you just draw straws." Gabe joked, piping up from across the room. He was playing with Cas as if he were a trapped kitten and not a moody angel.

"Want your tie? Want your tie?" He asked in a baby voice, dangling the silk in front of his grumpy, frowning face. The angel made no move to grab the tie. "Too slow!" Gabriel cracked himself up and yanked the piece of blue silk away. "Maybe we should keep him like this! He's kinda cute." Gabriel reached out and pinched his cheek, and was met with a blue-eyed stare that could kill.

"Not funny, Gabe." Sam shot back. "And you could at least try and help us with this."

Gabriel acted like he was considering something, but then shrugged. "Ehhhh...how about no. You're the cats who decided to stick your noses where they don't belong in the first place."

Dean still hadn't taken his eyes off the three weapons on the table in front of him. "Okay. Let's eliminate?" His two little brothers nodded somberly, and Dean reached for the demon knife, his motion followed by both Sam's large hand and Adam's smaller one. Dean dragged it to seperate it from the other two.

A white and black line. Heaven, or Purgatory. Angels or Monsters.

"Heaven." Adam almost mumbled, reaching for the pure white weapon. "Destroy Heaven's." Sam's hand followed and also touched the hilt.

"I agree." He added, chewing on his lip. "Look, it's _Heaven_. And they already got angel blades, in case something goes wrong. Dean, it's out best bet."

Dean locked his jaw. "No." He insisted strongly. "That's too risky. Maybe there are angels that those can't kill. Angels are goddamn _dicks_, Sam." -he was almost interrupted by a feigned hurt 'hey' from Gabriel across the room- "So what if something goes on there, huh? Like the friggin' apocalypse again? How the hell are we supposed to stop that?"

"Dean, we still have _no_ idea how to kill the Leviathan without this. What if they get out again?" Both him and Adam kept their hands firmly touching the white blade, and Dean felt like they were splitting into sides as they spoke.

"Look, Heaven put 'em in there, they can put 'em back again if they get out again." Dean countered. "Keeping the blade of Heaven- we can have the _upperhand_, Sammy! If they try to pull shit like the vessels on us again!" He narrowed his eyes. "Unless you want li'l old Lucifer inside you again."

To Dean's surprise, Adam shot him a death glare and pushed himself between Dean and Sam, as if he were shielding the giant man behind his tiny back. Dean would have laughed if it had been a different situation. "That was a low blow, Dean." He spoke up for Sam. "Why don't you take your blinders off and see that destroying Heaven's is the best choice?"

Dean's hands curled into fists. "Does _upperhand against Heaven _mean literally nothing to you two?!" He all but bellowed. "Lately, that's the only reason for shit that's been going on in our lives!"

Sam and Adam both identically narrowed their eyes. "Dean. You're being stupid. The Leviathans almost took over the Earth and were going to make humans into cattle, remember?" Sam shot out.

"Almost. They're back in time-out again, remember? I thought about this all damn night, Sam." Dean growled back. "I'll talk to you again when _you've_ come to your senses."

"C'mon, Adam." Sam roughly stood up and Adam followed."Let's go pick up some breakfast."

"_Pie_," Dean called as they brushed past him, fuming. He got no response.

He groaned in frustration and turned instead to look to Gabriel who was still toying with Cas. "You want the lollipop, Cassie? Do ya?"

Cas looked at him with a dead expression in his blue eyes. "I have no desire for earthly sweets."

"Hee hee! Too slow!"

Dean felt a pang of anger and frustration. Obviously Purgatory's blade was the clear choice, _right_? "C'mon, Gabe, leave him alone." Dean mumbled, tipping back a beer on the table, sighing.

"Hey. It's better than listening to you Winchesters flap your gums at each other." He popped the lollipop into his mouth. "Cas is pretty much soulless and its better than listening to your stupid quibbling."

"You're the one who said we had to choose in the first place!" Dean's hands curled into een tighter fists. "How are we even supposed to destroy it? And how the hell am I going to fix Cas?" He buried his face in his folded arms.

He shouldn't have said that thing about Lucifer to Sam. He was being a bad brother. And he wasn't even trying to talk to Cas like he was a real human being. He was being a bad friend.

"You have to destroy one with the other three. That's why it's gonna be damn dangerous when we get all four in the same place." Gabriel finally said seriously, turning away from Castiel. "And as for Cassie...there's one way I can think of. But he might not like it, and heaven sure as hell would be on my ass for doing something like that."

"Like what?" Dean asked, his eyebrows drew together. Why was Gabriel making it seem so bad?

"I could..take him away from his Superior. And make him...well," He smirked a little as he realized what the next few words might come off like. "Make 'im mine."

Dean dragged a hand down his face. "Yeah, Gabe, I guarantee he wouldn't like that."

Gabriel shrugged. "Hey. He _loved_ me when we were just little tikes. The problem would be with me, Dean. Archangels are forbidden from taking angels for ourselves. Ever since Lucy did it against the rules, he brought them down into hell with him when he got cast out."

Dean suddenly felt an unexpected ache in his chest. "But it would- Cas would get back to normal, right?" He asked, suddenly anxious.

Gabriel shrugged again. "No telling." He popped the lollipop back into his mouth. "Never broke that rule before. I look like the kinda person who wants to babysit to you?"

"No." Dean gritted his teeth. "Frankly, you seem like a kid yourself."

Gabriel gestured to him like that's what he'd been trying to get at the whole time. "I _know_, right?"

"Gabe, just...just make him okay, alright?" Dean said in a tight voice. Dean didn't exactly have a lot of friends. Hell, half of his friends were forced to be because they were family. He really didn't want to lose Cas.

"No promises." Gabe said back, disheartened. "I'll try, Deano."

"_You know I'm right here_." Cas seethed, his words dripping with anger. "And I strongly disagree to anything you imbeciles have the nerve to-"

"Hey, Cas?" Gabriel smirked, turning to him. He was met with an icy stare.

"_What_?" Castiel bit back.

"Do me a favor and take a little nap." Gabriel said with a grin, pressing two fingers to the dark-haired angel's forehead, who instantly snapped his eyes shut and slumped back on the wall, fast asleep. "I'm a _great_ babysitter, right Deano?" He said with a wink. "I got the magic touch."

Dean rolled his eyes. "You should have done that earlier. I hardly got any sleep last night."

Dean went and took another swig of his beer. When he looked back, he was surprised to see Gabriel tenderly sweeping a dark curl of hair behind Cas's ear. "Aww, hell Cassie." He muttered. "Heaven never was too kind to you, was it?"

Dean watched for a second. He felt bad about bitching at his two brothers earlier, and even worse about what he was about to do. But guilt was going to come later, he decided.

He made a mental checklist.

1) Get that stupid blade that almost cost him his life back from Crowley.

2) Destroy Purgatory's weapon with it.

3) Get Cas back to normal.

He didn't need Sam or Adam's help for any of that. And since when had any of his plans ever gone wrong (cough cough)?

_I'll show them I can be a worthwhile older brother._ Dean thought angrily._ I'll show Cas I do care about him. _

He cleared his throat. "Hey Gabe? How well can you make a devil's trap?"


End file.
